Automation & Controls

Two new automation systems can save shops money by reducing machine-loading labor.

As per the findings of a report, the global industrial robotics market is projected to indicate substantial growth over the forecast period due to multiple driving factors such as adoption of internet of things in industries and growing digitization of manufacturing industry across geographies.

Toolcraft Inc., a small machine shop in Monroe, Washington, makes parts for such industries as aerospace, defense and medical. The company needed help tending its CNC machine and ultimately turned to e-Series collaborative robots by Universal Robots A/S.

The global servo motors and drives market was valued at about US$ 9 Bn in 2014, and is expected to surpass US$ 12 Bn by the end of 2019. The servo motors and drives market is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 8% between 2019 and 2029, and is estimated to reach a global value of about US$ 28 Bn by the end of 2029.

In 1919, Louis Affolter, the second child of the watchmakers Samuel and Marie-Louise Affolter, founded his own company and started to produce gears and pivots for the Swiss watch manufacturers in the area. 100 years later, nine Affolter family members work in the high-tech enterprise Affolter Group and its daughter companies Affolter Technologies and Affolter Pignons.

Robotiq announced that its vacuum grippers, AirPick and EPick, are now compatible with the OMRON Collaborative Robot series and Techman Robot, along with other major cobot brands.

Company finds human and robot collaboration reduces costs and increased machine uptime.

Loading and unloading CNC machines is becoming one of the most popular applications for collaborative robots as manufacturers face significant difficulties in staffing this tedious task. A new distributor agreement between Universal Robots and Phillips Corp. will further the rapid deployment of cobots with Haas CNC machines, offering machine shops a safe, user-friendly solution to optimize spindle uptime. n n

Applied Manufacturing Technologies announced Aug. 11, 2019 marks the company's 30-year anniversary. Founded in 1989 by Michael Jacobs, the company has grown to 130 employees serving U.S. manufacturers from the Orion, Michigan, headquarters. AMT has built a tradition of excellence in providing customers with engineering and design services, and turnkey automation systems.

With application-tailored implementation of the umati interface for the machine tool sector, since 2017 clear contents and technical key data for translation into hands-on reality have been drawn up.

BLM Group USA has announced the appointment of two new regional sales managers to help develop sales of the company's laser tube cutting systems, benders and machining equipment product lines.

In a collaborative effort to best enable 5-axis machining for users with Heidenhain TNC controls and Mastercam CAD/CAM software, a new collaborate post-processor is now available.Called the Heidenhain TNC 5X Mill post-processor, CNC Software Inc., developers of Mastercam software, introduced it after coordinating development efforts between the two companies.