The international robot manufacturer, Sepro Group, presented its biggest display ever in China, exhibiting a total of seven robots at Chinaplas 2016, which took place April 25 – 28 in Shanghai. Three robots were shown on the Sepro China stand simulating operations that are typical of automotive manufacturing. Another four robots were operating in the booths of several injection-molding machine manufacturers.
The big, new Strong 50 robot represents a line of large robots designed to make 3-axis servo speed and precision available to molders who have relatively simple applications. At Chinaplas, a drawer-fed fabric-overmolding operation was simulated. The robot destacked fabric from one of two drawers and placed it into a mold and then repeated the operation, taking fabric from the second drawer. Then the robot removed the fabric from the mold, simulating both part removal and refilling of the drawers.
With horizontal stroke of 3000mm, the Strong 50 is sized to serve injection-molding machines from 1000 to 1600 tons.
Other new large robots, recently introduced for molding machines up to 5000 tons include the advanced 5-axis 7X Line and the technological 3-axis S7 Line. The new Strong range extends Sepro’s portfolio of universal robots – otherwise represented in the smaller Success Range – to serve machines up to 2800 tons.
A Success 11 could be seen on the Sepro stand in a quality-control application involving automobile roof handles. The robot picked a handle from a conveyer belt and placed it on a scale, where it was weighed. A red light indicated a bad (overweight or underweight) part and a green light indicated a good part. Good parts and bad parts were sorted into different chutes.
The general-purpose Success robots feature 3 axes of servo-driven motion, plus the performance and reliability Sepro robots known for, and are ideal for simple pick-and-place applications.
A third robot – a Model 5X-25 – was demonstrating the speed and precision of 5-axis servo operation in a deflashing demonstration. The robot gripped a part and rotated it so that its edge passed by a flaming station. The Sepro 3-axis Cartesian platform, plus a 2-axis servo wrist and advanced Visual 3 control allows the robot to manipulate parts through complex paths, making it ideal for this kind of critical application.
Representing the 6X Line of 6-axis articulated-arm robots, a Model 6X60 was shown on the Demag stand. A Success 22 and Success 33 could be seen on machines exhibited by FU CHUN SHIN MACHINERY MANUFACTURE CO., LTD. and a Success 11 was operating on a Logge injection-molding machine manufactured by Wuxi si Maginel Machinery Equipment Co., LTD.
