| |SEPTEMBER 20218ROBOTS IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRYBy Rajeev Khade, Vice President ­ Global Information Technology, Sigma Electric Manufacturing Corp. Pvt. LtdRajeev possess more than three decades of professional experience, and operational excellence spanning across various Digitalization, IoT, Industry 4.0 InitiativesExpert OpinionT he main reason that Ro-bots are used in manu-facturing is to create effi-ciencies all the way from raw material handling to finished product pack-ing. In the process, Robots protect workers from repetitive, mundane, and dangerous tasks.Robotic Automation has found its way into many different areas of manufactur-ing. Robots perform tasks like welding, assembly, shipping, handling raw materials, and product pack-ing. More and more manufacturers are leveraging ro-botic automation for a wider number of applications.Typical applications of robots include welding, painting, assembly, disassembly, pick and place for printed circuit boards, packaging and labeling, pal-letizing, product inspection, and testing; all accom-plished with high endurance, speed, and precision. What are the Major Reasons to Invest in Robots?The major reasons to invest in Robots range from re-duced operating costs to improved product quality & quality of work for employees, increased Competitive Advantage, increased production output, increased product manufacturing flexibility, reduced waste and increased yield, and improved health & safety. Today most robots are used in manufacturing operations; the applications can be divided into three categories: (i) material handling, (ii) processing operations, and (iii) assembly and inspection. Material HandlingMaterial-handling applications include materi-al transfer and machine loading and unloading. Material-transfer applications require the robot to move materials or work parts from one location to another. Many of these tasks are relatively simple, re-quiring robots to pick up parts from one conveyor and place them on another. Processing OperationsSome of the transfer operations are some-times complex, such as placing parts onto pallets in an arrangement that must be calculated by the robot. Machine loading and unload-ing operations utilize a robot to load and unload parts at a production machine. The design of the product is an important aspect of robotic assembly. Assem-bly methods that are satisfactory for humans are not necessarily suitable for robots. Assembly& Inspection Inspection is another area of factory operations in which the utilization of robots is growing. In a typi-cal inspection job, the robot positions a sensor with respect to the work part and determines whether the part is consistent with the quality specifications. The Growing Range of ApplicationsIn all industrial robotic applications, the robot pro-vides a substitute for human labor.There are certain types of industrial jobs per-formed by humans that identify the work as a poten-tial application for robots: e.g. (i) the operation is re-petitive, involving the same basic work as & motions cycle; (ii) the operation is hazardous or uncomfort-able for the human worker (e.g., spray painting, spot welding, arc welding, and certain machine loading and unloading tasks); (iii) the task requires a work part or tool that is heavy and difficult to handle; and Rajeev Khade, Vice President
< Page 7 | Page 9 >