ABB stated its upgraded IRB 1200 household is quicker and extra exact than its predecessors. | Supply: ABB Robotics
ABB Robotics right this moment launched three new robotic households in China and advanced its IRB 1200 line of of collaborative robots globally. In accordance with the corporate, each updates will assist it higher goal firms in Asia and past.
“With rising demand from SMEs [small and midsize enterprises] in Asia and past, the necessity for adaptable and environment friendly small automation options has by no means been higher,” acknowledged Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics. “The brand new IRB 1200 takes effectivity and productiveness even additional in essentially the most exact automation duties.”
The brand new technology IRB 1200 household is available in 4 variants — 5, 7, 8, and 9 kg (11, 15.4, 17.6, and 19.8 lb.). ABB stated this makes it appropriate for dealing with bigger or heavier elements. The robots use the OmniCore controller and supply movement management with path accuracy to only 0.6 mm (0.02 in.) and pose repeatability right down to 0.011 mm (0.0004 in.), even for a number of robots at excessive speeds of as much as 1,600 mm/s (3.5 mph).
A 5% quicker cycle time ensures that the brand new cobots ship precision for high-throughput, advanced purposes similar to floor ending, meeting, and shelling out. ABB stated it designed the robotic arms for electronics, manufacturing, automotive electronics, and shopper industries.
ABB Robotics & Discrete Automation is a number one supplier of industrial robots, autonomous cell robots (AMRs), and machine automation. In April, ABB Group introduced plans to spin off the division, which employs about 11,000 individuals at greater than 100 areas in 53 international locations, together with its North American headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich.
New robots designed for high-growth sectors
Every of ABB’s three new robotic households is being manufactured at its state-of-the-art Shanghai Mega Manufacturing unit. The corporate stated the brand new robotic households can fulfill a variety of automation wants in high-growth sectors, together with electronics, shopper items, and common industries.
The robots can deal with materials dealing with in addition to high-end purposes similar to shelling out and sharpening. The brand new households embrace:
- Lite+: ABB stated it constructed this line for important materials dealing with and pick-and-place operations. Lite+ is compact, straightforward to make use of, and lowers the obstacles to automation for smaller operators, the corporate claimed. Obtainable in China and Asia, its integration with the brand new IRB 1200 and different IRB robots gives flexibility for industries together with electronics manufacturing.
- PoWa: PoWa is a compact cobot constructed for pace, collaboration, and effectivity. With industrial-level speeds of as much as 5.8 m/s (12.9 mph), it may be used for quick selecting, palletizing, and machine-tending duties. Obtainable in China, PoWa’s no-code programming and plug-and-play capabilities imply it may be operational inside 60 minutes of unboxing, making it notably enticing to SMEs.
- IRB 1200 (New Era): The redesigned IRB 1200, out there globally, is optimized for high-speed, high-precision purposes together with meeting, sharpening, and shelling out. Roughly 20% lighter and extra compact than its predecessor, the IRB 1200 allows producers to create space-efficient manufacturing cells, boosting throughput and operational effectivity, stated ABB.
All are powered by ABB Robotics’ OmniCore management platform for full integration of AI, sensor, cloud, and edge computing programs to create essentially the most superior and autonomous robotic purposes.
ABB invests in its Chinese language operations
This strategic growth comes as China’s mid-market robotics section has skilled a 24% compound annual progress fee (CAGR) between 2021 and 2024. The Worldwide Federation of Robotics (IFR) predicted that the market will proceed rising at 8% yearly by 2028.
“China is the world’s largest robotics market and for ABB Robotics,” stated Sami Atiya, president of ABB Robotics & Discrete Automation Enterprise Space. “China’s progress in sectors similar to electronics and from small and medium-sized companies is driving the growing demand for accessible, user-friendly options, and we’re responding to that demand.”
“With our new robotic households, we’re not solely increasing what’s already essentially the most complete and built-in providing out there, however we’re [also] serving to new industries and clients automate with new mid-market worth propositions,” he added.
ABB’s launch occasion in Shanghai featured an AI-driven pure language software program software for educating robots, utilizing its new PoWa cobot. Combining generative and analytical AI, the expertise hurries up the educating course of for robots utilizing three easy steps: “see, converse, do.” This entails the robotic visually perceiving its setting, processing verbal directions in actual time, and instantly translating them into exact actions.
China is the world’s largest robotics market and accounted for greater than half of world robotic installations in 2023. With over 90% of ABB robots for Chinese language clients now manufactured regionally, the firm stated the launch demonstrates its dedication to China’s superior manufacturing transformation.
ABB deploys PixelPaint with Stellantis
Stellantis introduced this week its plant in Melfi, Italy, will use ABB’s PixelPaint expertise with mono coat paint from Nippon Paint. The corporate will use the robots to create the duo-tone paintwork of DS Vehicles’ new DS N°8 flagship.
The Paris-based model asserted that the portray expertise will ramp up manufacturing through the second half of 2025 in a totally automated and sustainable course of.
“DS N°8 redefines the French ‘Artwork of Journey.’ Its glossy contours are an invite to cowl lengthy distances in serene, all-electric consolation, whereas the prolonged duo-tone paintwork with its sharply-defined traces are an ultra-modern reinterpretation of historic French coachbuilding,” stated Silvio Licitra, head of paint course of engineering at Stellantis. “ABB’s PixelPaint allows this assembly of design and sustainability, an expression of technological excellence fused with the refined aesthetics synonymous with our avant-garde heritage.”
PixelPaint consists of a paint head with greater than 1,000 tiny, individually managed nozzles, mounted on an ABB robotic such because the IRB 5500 paint sequence. Mixed with 3D imaginative and prescient system and coordinated by ABB’s RobotStudio planning and programming software program, the top tracks very carefully to the automobile physique to make sure that 100% of the paint is utilized with no overspray or airborne misting. This eliminates waste and reduces environmental remedy necessities, stated the businesses.
ABB, Stellantis, and Nippon Paint introduced their collaboration in Cannes at SURCAR Europe, the worldwide convention on automotive physique ending held biennially since 1964.
