01
ABB IRB6700 INSTALLATIONS ENTIRELY ACCORDING TO PLAN
Together with a big supplier in the packaging industry, I installed an IRB6700 with servo tool and numerous SICK safety scanners. The robot handles several products, and stacks these in cages. Because the mesh width of the cages is too wide for a safety fence, it was decided to guard the surroundings with a safety PLC in combination with 3 SICK safety scanners. As soon as an operator enters the unsafe area, the FPLC makes a choice: either to stop the robot, or to disallow the robot in the area and to wait until the area is cleared.
The robot was delivered by ABB, and we used as much software as possible from the already-existing line. The FPLC has been reprogrammed during this process, in combination with SafeMove 1 of ABB for the robot. The end customer took care of the whole installation, and together we programmed, installed and tested several functions of the robot and PLC. By making it possible to work with remote support, any growing pains in the first weeks after installation were dealt with remotely, because of which the installation period remained very short.
Everyone was happy! The production staff, because they no longer have to stack by hand; the end customer, because the cost remained within budget, the robot was quickly and flawlessly installed, and we used the standard, company-familiar software; and me, for a terrific gig and an amazing collaboration!
02
VIRTUAL COMMISSIONING AVOIDS MANY PROBLEMS
As commissioned by a foreign end customer, I executed a 100% simulation by making use of Robotstudio. All the programmes that had been made, have been tested and controlled on reachability, cycle time, and parametrisation, in combination with a Siemens S71500 F PLC and a Siemens S7300.
The normal process orders were sent from the PLC, and were carried out by the robots. The concerned area is heavily industrialised; 3 IRB8700s were used with a payload of 800 kilogramme, and 2 Multimove IRB7600 robots which move synchronously. All movements were controlled with Virtual Reality in Robotstudio, because of which we were able to walk through the installations before start-up, and were able to have a good look at all positions in terms of reachability.
After the simulation, the installation started. Of course there were some process parameters that had to be finetuned, but the technical part which had been simulated delivered a huge time advantage!
From this casus, it becomes obvious that a well-executed simulation removes many problems during installation. Many problems that were spotted, were prepared and solved in practice, if necessary. Well-executed simulation of a project remains quite complex, partly because of the 3D models and because of the establishment of external equipment, but it seriously shortens the installation time at the location.
03
INTEGRATION COMPLETE CELL FOR THE FOOD INDUSTRY
For a new player in the food industry, I had the honour of delivering a complete ABB IRB1200 Clean Room robot, complete with a gripper, a linear conduction with an external (7th) axis, a Siemens 1200 safety PLC with Sick Safety scanner and an RVS discharge track.
Everything has been placed and integrated at the location, in collaboration with Beers Machine Techniek from Obdam (The Netherland), and of course with close collaboration with the end customer. All delivered components are food grade.
The robot searches for and grips 3 cups with a specifically-designed gripper. These cups are placed in a mould, after which the robot controls a linear conduction in order to clean, fill, seal and mark the cups with a date and production mark. After this, the robot places the cups on the discharge track, which has space for a couple hours of production. The robot, in combination with the PLC, controls the external machine, making sure that it executes the several functions at the right moment. As an extra function, a wrapper has been designed, which is controlled by a Siemens Servo and cleanly wraps the foil.
In the preliminary stage, the whole machine has been simulated as a digital twin, to make sure the robot is able to do its full task in the very confined space.
This machine has been built as a production machine with the purpose of aiding the employee, who had to formerly put the cups in the mould by hand and controlled the external machine, thus allowing him to be able to work on other duties.
During and after installation, we made several optimisations to the cell, often by making use of Remote Support, so the robot becomes even better at taking over the work!
04
ABB IRB6700 INSTALLATIONS ENTIRELY ACCORDING TO PLAN
Together with a big supplier in the packaging industry, I installed an IRB6700 with servo tool and numerous SICK safety scanners. The robot handles several products, and stacks these in cages. Because the mesh width of the cages is too wide for a safety fence, it was decided to guard the surroundings with a safety PLC in combination with 3 SICK safety scanners. As soon as an operator enters the unsafe area, the FPLC makes a choice: either to stop the robot, or to disallow the robot in the area and to wait until the area is cleared.
The robot was delivered by ABB, and we used as much software as possible from the already-existing line. The FPLC has been reprogrammed during this process, in combination with SafeMove 1 of ABB for the robot. The end customer took care of the whole installation, and together we programmed, installed and tested several functions of the robot and PLC. By making it possible to work with remote support, any growing pains in the first weeks after installation were dealt with remotely, because of which the installation period remained very short.
Everyone was happy! The production staff, because they no longer have to stack by hand; the end customer, because the cost remained within budget, the robot was quickly and flawlessly installed, and we used the standard, company-familiar software; and me, for a terrific gig and an amazing collaboration!
As commissioned by a foreign end customer, I executed a 100% simulation by making use of Robotstudio. All the programmes that had been made, have been tested and controlled on reachability, cycle time, and parametrisation, in combination with a Siemens S71500 F PLC and a Siemens S7300.
The normal process orders were sent from the PLC, and were carried out by the robots. The concerned area is heavily industrialised; 3 IRB8700s were used with a payload of 800 kilogramme, and 2 Multimove IRB7600 robots which move synchronously. All movements were controlled with Virtual Reality in Robotstudio, because of which we were able to walk through the installations before start-up, and were able to have a good look at all positions in terms of reachability.
After the simulation, the installation started. Of course there were some process parameters that had to be finetuned, but the technical part which had been simulated delivered a huge time advantage!
From this casus, it becomes obvious that a well-executed simulation removes many problems during installation. Many problems that were spotted, were prepared and solved in practice, if necessary. Well-executed simulation of a project remains quite complex, partly because of the 3D models and because of the establishment of external equipment, but it seriously shortens the installation time at the location.