The automotive industry has been an early adopter of industrial robotics technology and that continues to this day. The industrial robotics field continues to advance and expand, increasing the abilities and improving the features to take on more human characteristics such as, memory, sensing and ease of trainability. These improvements have increased their importance in the manufacturing world mainly the automotive sector.
The game changing robots from Universal Robots known as collaborative robots are partially responsible for the explosion in the robotic application of the new generation robots. The cobots work together with human workers who train them by physical demonstrations to perform the task.
While the number of industrial robots continues to rise in other manufacturing sectors, it is still evident that the automotive industry remains to be a major driver for the growth of industrial robotics worldwide. Automotive manufactures are finding out that they have to expand their main competencies in their production capacity in order to stand out in the competition. This has led to the massive assimilation of the cobots in the sector. These manufacturing robots have proven to be very productive and use less energy to work.
While there are plenty of robotic applications within the industry, five clearly stand out as being the most valuable applications in the automotive sector.
Painting
Painting is a key a task in the automotive process but professional painters are difficult to find and not forgetting how dangerous this activity is to the health of humans. This makes the job perfect for the robots to handle. The robots are efficient in carrying out the painting job, which requires high consistency and precision in order to obtain the desired results.
Another benefit of using them in painting is reduction of wastage since the robots eliminate the chances of error, which are common in every human the robots are able to achieve perfect results.
Assembly
Assembly lines in the automotive sector require flexible and precise system that manual labor cannot guarantee. The assembling of small components like motors occurs at a high speed by the robots. Other tasks performed by the manufacturing robots include windshield installations and wheel mounting which is very repetitive. Use of robots in such tasks help relieve workers of routine jobs which are very boring and instead commit themselves in completing the skilled tasks.
Manufacturing the component parts used
Vehicles are made from a wide variety of component parts that are assembled together to form the final product. From the engine parts, instrument panels on the dashboard, the wipers to the interior features of the cars. Most of the components are from other factories then shipped to the final assembly places. Cobots play an important role in their production. Cobots also ensure that the various pieces of automobiles are in good condition.
Working with other industrial robots
It is true that the industry still utilizes the traditional industrial robots especially I the heavy lifting involved in the production activities. Unfortunately, these traditional robots are usually not safe for humans to work alongside them hence the reason for their separation from the humans work environment by cages. Nevertheless, collaborative robots can comfortably work with the traditional robots with less risk. This helps minimize the occurrence of easily avoidable accidents at the workplace.
Part transfers and machine tending
Other applications best suited for robots include pouring molten metal, transferring metal stamps, glass gluing and installation. Collaborative robots are ideal for machine tending such as injection molding loading and unloading of the CNC machines and fixing brake presses.
Conclusion
While the advancement of robotic technology is still ongoing, the use of robots in the automotive sector continues at a record pace. The above applications are some of the most common uses of the manufacturing robots. Universal Robots seem to be quite devoted to providing reliable solutions in robotic automation hence we can expect robotics to continue playing a critical role in the automotive industry.
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