Sepro Group's CEO Jean-Michel Renaudeau commenced the company's press conference at Fakuma 2015 by announcing that the leading developer of robotic technology and systems is celebrating yet another record year.
This year will take Sepro's sales beyond the €90 million mark - year-on-year growth of 13 per cent for the company - with positive growth in Europe, China and North America, hence the creation of Sepro Canada.
Establishing Sepro Canada, Renaudeau said, was a "logical next step after creating Sepro America and Sepro Mexico" and represents Sepro's success as a company with agility.
The key theme of Sepro's campaign at Fakuma 2015, after the success of 'your choice in robots' at 2014's event, has been size and 'making a BIG impression'.
Three new lines of Sepro robots for plastics injection moulding machines with 700 to 5000 tons of clamping capacity have made their European debut at Fakuma 2015, with Sepro demonstrating a model 7X-55 five-axis robot from the new premium 7X Line and a Strong 50 on its stand.
At the same time, Sepro has announced another 3-axis family of robots for large-tonnage moulding machines: the technological S7 Line. Also on display is a 6X-90 6-axis articulated arm robot, a 5X-25, which is a smaller 5-axis robot, and a Success 33 from the company's universal range of 3-axis robots. Sepro robots are also on display on the stands of injection-moulding machine suppliers, including Demag, Billion , Haitian, JSW, and others.
"The new large robots complete the transformation of the full Sepro product line, which we began in 2008," said Renaudeau, "Over the last six years – since the depths of the financial crisis – we have completely redesigned our portfolio to deliver all-servo robots that are faster and more powerful, with longer strokes and larger payloads than previous generations."
Further to these new arrivals at Fakuma, Renaudeau revealed that Sepro wants to be the champion of automation, with its Solution by Sepro concept.
"We want to develop 3-6-axis robots and offer global solutions to the customer worldwide. This is not an addition but a multiplication, giving us the opportunity to work over different channels. We have different possibilities for customers and we offer more choice because we want to go beyond the Euromap 67.
"Sepro today is driving to another record year and we want to think big about big robots around the world. We want to develop opportunities and go on being innovative. We want to offer more choice to the customer."
Introducing the robots
The new large robots improve upon the Sepro G4 Line, which previously covered high-tonnage moulding applications. In general, the new S7 and 7X robots have longer kick (Y-axis) stokes, longer vertical (Z-axis) strokes and can handle larger payloads than their G4 predecessors.
The advanced SLS (Sepro Linear System with cam follower rails) guidance system on the horizontal beam and vertical arm provide rigidity and reliability even at maximum acceleration and speed. The vertical arm is an aluminum profile for compact, lightweight strength. Control of the servo motors and braking reduces noise and energy consumption, while minimizing maintenance (no need to balance cylinders).
The S7 Line, which Sepro refers to as a "technological" range, includes three different models: the S7-45 for molding machines from 700 to 1300 tons, the S7-55 for machines from 1200 to 2500 tons and the S7-75 for machines from 2300 to 5000 tons. They feature Sepro's highest level of quality and can be adapted easily to customer requirements for axial configurations (where the main X-axis beam runs parallel rather than perpendicular to the centerline of the molding machine), as well as extended vertical (LV) and kick (LD) strokes and heavy-payload (HL) options. Compared to the previous generation G4 units, the new S7 Lines have a standard kick stroke that is 10 to 15% longer, and a vertical stroke that is 4 to 10% longer. Payload capacities are up to 50% greater.
Modules for the X, Y and Z axes are built separately, simplifying transport and assembly.
The 7X Line is based on the same basic mechanical platform as the S7 3-axis robot, but adds a 2-axis servo-driven wrist developed in partnership Stäubli Robotics. Unlike pneumatic wrists, which can only move in a continuous arc from 0° to 90° or 0° to 180°, the 7X wrists can move from 0 to 180° and 0 to 270° or any part of those rotations with absolute precision.
Servo motors have positional encoders that recognize exactly where the drive shaft is at any moment. Then the system control can integrate positional signals from all of the servo motors on all 5 axes so that it knows exactly where the gripper and part are in space at all times. This allows the robot to complete very complicated motions in all axes simultaneously and do it very precisely and with perfect repeatability. The servo wrist can grip and position parts at any angle making the robot much easier to set up and operate and allowing for simpler end-of-arm tooling.
The Strong Line robots extend the range of Sepro's economical robots – otherwise represented in the smaller Success Range – to serve machines up to 2800 tons.
Built with the quality and reliability of all Sepro robots, the Strong Lines make 3-axis servo speed and precision available to molders who have applications that require simple pick-and-place functionality and simple downstream operations. The design approach and production methods allow Sepro to make an affordable robot with enhanced capabilities.
All these new robots are operated using the same easy-to-use control platform, which was developed by Sepro especially for injection-molding applications. The 5-axis 7X robots benefit from the application of the Visual 3 robot control, Sepro's newest, fastest and most powerful control. Visual 2 controls are standard on advanced S7 Line 3-axis robots, and Strong can use the basic Touch 2 control or the Visual 2 can be specified when applications require a more powerful control. All controls have the same user interface with large, easy-to-read and -navigate 10-inch touch-sensitive screen that makes operation simple and intuitive. A joystick allows operators to actually steer the robot to fine-tune its movements.
