Robots - two heads are better than one!

Highly flexible and fully automated production today demands complete integration of robots into the production flow and into the automation environment. Joint applications for robots and machine tools are growing steadily.

With the shared development, new products will be coordinated optimally over their entire life cycle, but seamless, operator-friendly integration of the robot for loading the machine tool is a major focus: the companies estimate that about a fifth of the loading and unloading machines installed every year could be automated economically using robots. In many cases, they say, the integration of a robot with the machine tool pays for itself in less than a year. Moreover, in the long term, the two companies will be including aspects of robot automation in a joint Industry 4.0 project.

"The CNC control from Siemens and the robot controls from Kuka are ideal for integrating robot and CNC technology. With this cooperation, we are advancing intelligent automation for the benefit of both partners and to expand business into new areas,” says Dr Robert Neuhauser, CEO of Business Unit Motion Control Systems at Siemens.

"With this joint approach, the two companies are strengthening the fundamental idea of integrated production and can, for example, develop new markets by close intermeshing of machine tool tasks and loading tasks,” says Manfred Gundel, CEO of Kuka Roboter.

Kuka will provide robot systems that are proven in CNC, using Sinumerik from Siemens for integration with machine tools. The standard implementation of the concept includes loading by a Kuka robot, which is integrated in Sinumerik. A scaled offer is also planned ranging from a robot with additional CNC machining functionality to a robot as a pure CNC machining unit. Here, too, the aim is complete integration of the robot into the PLM processes.

Scalable & integrated

The companies will also develop scalable, integrated approaches for machining workpieces with robots, especially for lightweight construction. In this field, in particular, machining large aerospace or automotive parts out of new materials such as composites and aluminium alloys require innovative machining concepts with many synchonised axes that the two companies will be intensively advancing together.

At EMO, Kuka used a machine tool model to demonstrate the integration of a KR Agilus-type Kuka robot. This extremely fast and precise small robot loaded the machine tool, while another robot from the KR Quantec series took care of downstream machining steps.

The waterproof variant of the KR Agilus made its debut at EMO 2013. With its higher protection classification of IP67, the robot is protected against the ingress of dust and water, thus enabling it to meet the most important criteria for integration with a machine tool.

Meanwhile Siemens exhibited a new RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) method for the identification and management of tools, based on the extremely small MDS D117 and MDS D127 transponders, as well as the compact Simatic RF250R stationary reader and the Simatic RF310M mobile handheld reader. The Simatic RF250R reader is optimised for permanent installation around machine tools. It can be connected to commonly used fieldbuses via RS232 and RS422. With the Simatic RF310M mobile handheld reader, tools can be easily identified manually, for example when they are removed from the tool stock.

Both readers have been designed to connect external antennas, such as the extremely compact new ANT8. Thanks to its M8 design with a length of 40mm, the ANT8 antenna can be installed in restricted spaces, such as directly in the tool magazine. It means that companies can identify their tools quickly, cheaply and accurately, and can also store data, such as dimensions and residual tool life, directly on a transponder at the tool.