Over at ALM Engineering in County Durham, UK, a partnership with SICK UK has enabled seamless safety without sacrificing productivity for their collaborative robot (cobot) CoboTend, crucial for its continued development.
The concept arose from the growing needs of the family-run business, founded by Tony Thompson 30 years ago and supported by his sons, Matthew and Daniel. Their development of collaborative robot applications, based on a Universal Robots model, proved so successful that they decided to market it externally, calling it the CoboTend.
Through its Cobots Online machine tending automation portal, sales of the CoboTend have become a major contributor to ALM’s business and are expected to double to 80 units in the next 12 months. The Cobots Online portal also offers UR-based robot solutions for sanding and welding.
The CoboTend integrates a UR robot into a self-contained, lightweight trolley unit that can be wheeled and secured at a machine within minutes. A hydraulic mechanism lifts and lowers the wheels, locking the trolley in place. End-effectors and grippers can be replaced with the touch of a button depending on the required operation.
Safety and productivity
Two SICK nanoScan3 Pro safety laser scanners are positioned at opposite corners of the CoboTend’s trolley cabinet, providing 360° coverage around the robot. These scanners allow the robot to slow to a safe speed when someone enters the outer safety field and stop only if the inner field is breached. This dynamic safety feature ensures maximum uptime and productivity.
Optimising safety with productivity has been essential in the CoboTend’s development. A partnership with SICK has enabled Cobots Online to offer a machine safety set-up in minutes.
Matthew Thompson, ALM’s Commercial Manager, explained: “Machine shops like ours are busy places crammed with plant and machinery, and there is not much space in between them. Conventional robots, guarded in cages, would just take up too much room. So, to automate our machine tending we needed a safety system that would enable a robot to operate at speed for most of the time avoiding frequent stops and manual restarts, meanwhile protecting the safety of personnel passing nearby.
SICK nanoScan3 Pro with SBot Speed URCap
The SICK nanoScan3 Pro safety laser scanner is easily integrated thanks to the SBot Speed URCap, a user-friendly safety system combining SICK and Universal Robots technology.
The sBot Speed URCap is designed for ease of set-up and intuitive operation, developed by SICK in collaboration with Universal Robots. It facilitates safeguarding a robot application while maintaining high productivity. The system uses smart field definition and field teach-in, with simultaneous scan data and automatic field fusion providing feedback through the GUI displayed on the robot pendant for set-up, diagnostics, commissioning, and validation.
The circular fields, measured from the robot base, are generated automatically after the teach-in process, identifying the robot’s surroundings within seconds. The safety system integrates via SICK’s Flexi Soft controller, fitting neatly within the unit’s cabinet.
Designed by users, for users
“Until we began working with SICK, with earlier versions of the CoboTend we had to set up the safety systems using a laptop and more complex software,” continued Matthew Thompson. “It took a lot longer, and the software was much less easy to use than it is now. Now, we can combine effortless set-up with peace of mind for our customers.
“The SICK safety is part of the CoboTend’s ultimate appeal: It has been designed by people who use it and understand it. We have developed it for our own efficiency, to get a direct benefit from it. There are other systems out there, but they are developed by robot manufacturers, and not actual users like us.”
The ultra-compact SICK nanoScan3 Pro measures 101 x 101 x 80 mm and is only eight centimetres tall. Despite its size, it incorporates SICK’s latest safety laser scanning technology, including the innovative safeHDDM (High Definition Distance Measurement) scanning and evaluation technology. This ensures high responsiveness when adjusting a machine’s speed and direction, even under challenging industrial conditions such as bright lights, sparks, dust, and dirt. The SICK nanoScan3 Pro is a Type 3 device (IEC 61496-3) and can be used with the sBot systems in safety functions up to SIL2 (IEC 62061)/ PLd (ISO 13849).
Return on investment
Like many high-mix, low-volume manufacturers served by Cobots Online, ALM Engineering sees further automation with mobile robots as essential.
Recruitment is becoming increasingly difficult and costly, especially since the Covid pandemic, according to Thompson. Using cobots frees up personnel from mundane, repetitive tasks and reduces the need for overtime during busy periods. Cobots Online customers come from diverse industries, including kitchen manufacturing, automotive, and aerospace.
“At ALM, we move our CoboTends around all the time,” added Thompson. “They can do one job in the morning, and another in the afternoon. We can turn the lights off on a Friday and leave them running all weekend.
“Given the price of labour, a CoboTend has a maximum pay-back period of two years. Once our customers have one machine, it’s often not long before they return to buy another one.”
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