Flexible food safe robots feature a greater working area

Based on a new mechanical design, the MELFA F-Series robots are said to be extremely flexible and able to reach a far greater working area than other robots. They can even reach round and behind their own base. The compact design allows the robot to work in confined spaces and can be floor, wall or ceiling mounted.

The robots in corporate Mitsubishi Electric servo motors developed especially for the F-Series, a powerful new controller and other high performance components. They are thus able to maintain fast cycle times and high positioning accuracy, for improved productivity. The cycle time for a 12in movement is a class leading 0.29sec.

The F-Series robots come with cabling fully enclosed right to the end of spindle for total protection and safety. The cabling includes pneumatic tubing and I/O for hand control, as well as CAT5 Ethernet cabling allowing for easy installation of vision systems or other Ethernet devices, such as sensors, cameras, and additional axis controllers.

When it comes to integration the F-Series controllers can be used as standalone devices or embedded into the powerful Mitsubishi Electric iQ PLC rack. Supporting up to three robots on one rack allows the system to share data, thus enabling features such as automatic collision avoidance and cooperative control.