Cobots, Robots, Automation – Improve Assembly, Process and Costs

The first industrial robot, the Unimate, was introduced in 1961 by the American engineers George Devol and Joseph Engelberger. It was designed to perform repetitive tasks in a factory setting to lift and move hot pieces of metal from one area to another. This breakthrough in automation has revolutionized the manufacturing industry by allowing machines to perform tasks previously done by humans. This has led to continuous production opportunities around the clock and therefore increased productivity, reduced labor costs, and improved accuracy, precision and product quality with reduced risk of error.

Even more important than efficiency increase, robots and cobots can ease human worker’s life or increase safety in carrying out tasks that are too dangerous or difficult for humans to perform, such as working with loads, hazardous materials or under extreme conditions.

There are two main types of machines in industrial automation that are mainly differentiated by their intended use and level of human interaction:

• Robots usually operate without direct human supervision to carry out highly repetitive or dangerous tasks with high speed and precision, especially in mass production. They are commonly used in assembly lines like the automotive industry and specially designed for a limited number of tasks with limited options to be adapted to change.
   
• Cobots, or collaborative robots, are typically smaller, more flexible, and easier to program than traditional robots, making them ideal for working alongside humans on small-batch manufacturing. They are also a first choice where more frequently changing tasks, short programming time and flexibility are required.

Let us now turn the spotlight to the adhesive tapes mentioned at the beginning, which, as highly specific components, play decisive roles in automated production processes and can offer tangible competitive advantages.

Robots don’t eat; therefore, they don’t need to be fed. Really? Well, robots also need to be fed. Maybe not with food but with energy and — to be able to fulfill their tasks — often times with tapes or other materials they need for assembly.

By far not every adhesive tape is suitable for robotic applications or automated assembly processes. But those that are add significant value as we will see in three examples from Saint-Gobain® Tape Solutions.

Norseal® Extruded Foam Profiles have long length in a continuous format that lends itself to automation. These profiles have been used to make gaskets for sandwich panels and they are also used in other industries where they seal the interfaces of walk-in refrigerators and appliances. Because the format is continuous, there is no need to stop the robot or machinery until after an exceptionally long running time. This continuous length enables faster machine speed, less stoppage time, and improved quality due to fewer spliced sections. Many profiles are available as a round gasket, but other shapes can be made as well.

In many automotive exterior bonding applications, acrylic tapes like Norbond Z3000, Norbond Z2000 and many others are converted to spools with secondary release liners and used extensively in automotive exterior trim component bonding such as body side moldings or pillars. Unwound from spools and applied in fixed or flexible automation, tapes can significantly facilitate automotive and electric vehicle manufacturing. Double-sided acrylic foam tapes in a spool format can be applied using a tape application head using a robot. These robots can repeatable apply pressure sensitive tapes to curved surfaces with much more efficiency than applying them by hand. It is possible to pre-qualify a tape with a robot to test that the robot applies the tape properly and that the tape feeds through the head efficiently.

Although not a tape, Dynafoam® Foam-in-Place (FIP) polyurethane foam has been developed to seal out water, air or dust as well as decouple the noise vibrations. Thanks to its engineered viscosity and its mechanical foaming, Dynafoam exhibits excellent thixotropic behavior allowing 3-dimensional and upside-down automated application. For industries like automotive and construction, seamless and continuous application to complex shapes makes it ideal for door and other automotive gasketing applications as well as sealing sandwich panels in prefab construction to ensure consistent quality, performance and safe time and labor costs through automated application.

For robots being used for inventory management, process flow and other applications, UHMW tapes are an interesting topic for many companies. PTFE, UHMW and silicone rubber products are ideal for applications requiring durability, long life and contamination-free wear surfaces.

Below, another depiction of an automated foam application by a robot. Source: www.robotape.com.

While the above-mentioned Terminator was a robot sent from the future to save the planet, industrial robots we are talking about here are non-fictional helpers in the here and now. But they can also contribute to saving the planet, although in a much different way than the one in action movies.

“I’ll be back!” is one of the most famous quotes from robot action movies. Besides offering companies more efficient and profitable ways of production, more recently robots “are back” to help improve sustainability efforts through reducing waste, allowing for better product performance but also by planting trees or interacting with artificial intelligence (AI) to make recycling easier and more efficient. The switch to more automation in production is in full swing and if you would like to experience how your business can benefit from this development, check which tapes and materials are ideal to feed to your robots and bring your business to life.