Product category:
Tubeworking: bending, cutting-off, profiling and end working
News Release from: Unison | Subject: Uni-vercell at Tube, Dusseldorf
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 01 February 2008
Automated tube bending cell runs at
EUR7/day
Automated tube bending cell integrates robot arm, loader, end-former, bender and inspection into space of typical tube bender and can fabricate thousands of parts/day EUR 7 running cost.
Unison will show a radical automated tube bending cell for the first time in Europe, at Tube Dusseldorf 2008 The cell provides a complete end-to-end loading/end-forming/bending and vision inspection process in the footprint typically required for a standalone tube-bending machine, said Unison
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 25 Sep 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Called Uni-vercell, its innovative, all-electric machine architecture centred on an articulated robot arm takes performance up to a new level.
Priced to compete with stand-alone tube benders, Uni-vercell is expected to rewrite the economics of fabricating tubular components for high volume applications such as those associated with the automotive industry, said Unison to manufacturingtalk.
Project manager with Unison, Mike Lawson, said: "We've developed automated cells in the past around our standard tube bending machines.
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With Uni-vercell, we designed the system from the ground up, replacing the machine's carriage with a standard robot arm".
He said the cell design is therefore much more compact and gives "perfect accuracy and repeatability" because the arm retains the part for the duration of the process, and every part is inspected.
It eliminates a lot of hardware, and by exploiting the vertical space, Unison has effectively packed three machines into the space of one.
Unison's first implementation of Uni-vercell is for fabricating tubular parts with diameters up to 3/4in (16 mm) and features th following.
* It sits in a footprint of just 48ft2 (4.5m2).
* A tube loader.
* A6-axis robotic arm with a 13.23 lb (6kg) payload.
* Two-stage end-former.
* A multi-stack mandrel-less tube bender.
* Vision system.
Unison said that the integrated vision system allows the cell to operate unmanned with 100% inspection of bend angles and end form shapes.
The programmability of the system also makes it easy to integrate further functions such as product labeling, which can easily be fitted into the extensive free vertical space.
* All-electric - Unison said it is the pioneer of 'all-electric', servomotor-controlled tube benders.
These provide substantial set-up, repeatability and scrap reduction advantages compared with traditional hydraulic-powered machines, and have become the 'de facto' choice for most new machine purchases for smaller tube diameters up to 6in (150mm).
The same architectural principles are exploited in this new machine, which features a software-centric architecture that gives unprecedented control over tube part fabrication.
* Innovations - two major innovations are at the heart of Uni-vercell.
1 - The replacement of a tube bender's carriage with an articulated robotic arm.
By adapting the arm with a simple collet for gripping and rotating the tubular part, the arm is able to hold and manipulate the part continuously from pick up, through end forming, tube bending and inspection stages, to final release.
This eliminates the cost of the carriage and the large space required for the carriage bed, as well as numerous intervening reference points, jigs and handling equipment that might normally be required when building a cell from discrete components.
2 - The development of an all-electric end former, to provide software-controlled, two-stage end forming (flaring and compressing).
Compared with conventional hydraulic end formers, this approach eliminates the pump and tubing - and the associated heat, noise, energy consumption and environmental issues.
* Performance - Uni-vercell delivers remarkable performance, said Unison.
It can fabricate parts to an overall accuracy of 0.1mm.
Although the cell is optimised for repetitive volume applications, the flexibility of the robot arm allows it to be configured easily for batch production as well.
Accuracy and repeatability are assured, because of the system's use of closed-loop electronic control.
The drift-free performance offered also means that the machine can be instantly set up to fabricate parts just by loading a program, rather than making and scrapping trial parts until the configuration is right.
* Low running cost - the cell is designed for continuous use and can easily fabricate thousands of parts a day.
With a typical energy consumption of around 1.5kW (measured using an example part with three bends and one end form, including stacking at the end of the process, and 100% inspection), daily electricity running costs are around EUR 7.
The software-controlled nature of the machine delivers many further technical advantages, including much greater control over the bending process.
Fine adjustments to torque levels or movement profiles can be made, for example, to optimise bend quality.
Complicated shapes that might be difficult to make on a conventional hydraulic machine can also be produced easily, because the machine is able to make intervening adjustments or moves between stages, to avoid a collision for instance.
This programmability can equally be exploited to optimise cycle time - by making only the minimum movements required.
* Rapid programming - programming the cell for an application can be achieved very rapidly thanks to Unison's powerful front-end software package, Unibend, and the friendly teaching software supplied with the robot.
Programming bends and end forms requires only the input of data such as position, angle, rotation and torque, and the machine sets up automatically.
All of the intervening movements required by the robot may then be programmed by simply positioning the arm manually and capturing the data.
Using these simple techniques, a complete cell program can easily be produced in less than an hour.
The fabrication processes and movement-related operations are also discrete stages of a cell program, allowing modifications such as fine tuning of bending or end forming, or movement optimisation to be made quickly, and without generating a new program.
Energy saving is a further major advantage of Unison's new cell, as it only consumes a significant amount of electricity during the actual bending and forming operations.
No hydraulic system needs to be maintained at pressure, for either the bending or end forming tools.
Typical energy consumption rate for a continuously processing cell is around 1.5kW/h.
* Unison at Tube, Dusseldorf, Germany, March 31- April 4, 2008, Stand 6B01.
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