What is machine maintenance?
Manufacturing relies on machinery, and the continued profitability of manufacturing businesses depends on those machines maintaining a high level of performance over time. An important part of this is improving the use and efficiency of existing equipment. Loading and unloading material from industrial machines at a constant speed increases productivity and yields – reducing the cost of production over time. This is what machine tending means.
For decades, this repetitive, difficult task has been performed by machine operators. But as skilled workers become harder to find, machine maintenance has become one of the most popular manufacturing processes to automate. The workflow of placing a raw or blank part into a machine part and removing it when the machining process is complete can be automated to ensure no variation.
How our cobots can help
A cobot arm is good at picking things up and placing them, which is what machine tending is in its simplest form. But within that broad definition, there is a lot of variation and complexity between different machine maintenance applications. That’s where the versatility of cobots can really add value. They integrate seamlessly with a wide range of end effectors, vision systems and other accessories, removing complexity for the user. The compact footprint and flexible, easy-to-use software can quickly add value to manufacturing workflows.