Page 20 - MetalForming-Feb-2018-issue

Hydraulic Presses with Robots
the pressroom-robotics trend.
“Due to the increasing ease-of-use when operating robots, less technical expertise is needed to program and run robots, which makes the technol- ogy more accessible to metalformers across the board,” Bisbee says. “Not that robot capabilities have decreased —they are way up. But users easily can program robots for many applications
these days.”
Key to programming ease are intu- itive, smartphone-like user interfaces with real-world language, teach pen- dants, and even the ability to hit a ‘record’ button to save sequences that can include end-of-arm-tooling actions and robot-arm manipulations. The robot saves those movements to run again in the future, resulting in con- sistent, repeatable operations.
“This can be done for many simple
applications, such as unloading small parts or placing them here or there,” Bisbee says. “More complicated pro- cedures involving multiple-axis move- ment and various in-press maneuvers require more intricate programming, but even that has become easier.
“You don’t necessarily have to buy a robot just to run a high-volume repet- itive job,” he continues. “You can buy it to help with a 100-part run, and then switch over for a different 100-part run. You don’t need a master programmer to program a robot.”
Robots and Hydraulic Presses: A Unique Fit
We can see why robots are becom- ing more and more common in press- room environments, and a comple- mentary relationship between hydraulic presses and robotics can bring even greater benefits, according to Bisbee.
“In automated cells with hydraulic presses, a robot can perform in con- junction with the press in a unique way,” he says. “At times the press con- troller communicates with the robot, telling it what to do and when and where to move. At other times the robot controller tells the press to move to a certain position in the stroke or at a particular speed in order to place, remove or orient a part. And, the com- munication path can be changed dynamically, as material travels into a press, and as a part routes through and out of the press. At Greenerd, we refer to this as Dynamic Press Control.”
Bisbee points out one current appli- cation where, during a draw sequence, the press communicates with the robot, instructing it when to enter the press to hold and extract a part. As the robot removes the part from the tool- ing, it communicates instructions to the press, telling it to move at a certain velocity and hold a certain ram posi- tion during extraction to help ensure proper part removal and the desired part orientation.
“Often with a mechanical press, the ram descends, forms the part, ascends and then tells the robot to retrieve the
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18 MetalForming/February 2018
www.metalformingmagazine.com