Under the second major test of the epidemic, Universal Robots help the manufacturing industry to improve efficiency and break the situation

Since the beginning of this year, the repeated epidemics at home and abroad have continued to impact the supply chain, which constitutes a “second test” for the manufacturing industry. China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rebounded to 50.2 percent in June after contracting for three consecutive months, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. But then, affected by factors such as the traditional off-season of production and insufficient release of market demand, the manufacturing PMI fell to 49.0% in July, and fell back below the critical point (50%). However, many analysts believe that with the improvement of “prevention” and “control”, the implementation of scientific epidemic prevention measures, the resumption of work and production in many places and the smooth progress of logistics, it is expected that the manufacturing industry will gradually recover amid fluctuations.

Universal Robots, a Danish collaborative robot manufacturer, believes that in the process of rising volatility in the manufacturing industry, the industry is mainly facing pain points in the following two aspects. First of all, with the continuous progress of resumption of work and production and the further implementation of various policies, the demand accumulated in the early stage will be released faster, but the uncertainty of the supply of human resources and the rapid changes in market demand have put forward higher requirements on the agility of the production side. Secondly, under the epidemic, the costs of raw materials, energy, and transportation are under pressure, which puts companies under greater pressure to control costs and improve profit margins. Data show that in July, the national ex-factory price of Industrial producers increased by 4.2% year-on-year, and the purchase price of industrial producers increased by 6.5% year-on-year; on average from January to July, the ex-factory price of industrial producers increased by 7.2% compared with the same period last year, and the purchase price of industrial producers increased by 7.2% year-on-year. Prices rose by 9.8%, indicating that the industry urgently needs effective means to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Adam Sobieski, President of Universal Robots Greater China, said: “The manufacturing industry has always been the stabilizer of the national economy. The repeated epidemics in recent months have once again magnified the importance of the resilience of the manufacturing supply chain. Under the big test, the key to breaking the situation in the manufacturing industry is to improve the flexibility of production and the leanness of management through digitalization and automation, so as to achieve agile production and achieve the purpose of reducing costs and increasing efficiency. In the process of enterprises embracing agile manufacturing, traditional industrial Robots lack flexibility and are difficult to deploy, which limits their application scenarios. In order to better meet the requirements of flexible, fast, and safe deployment, more and more companies are turning to collaborative robots.”

　Efficient, flexible, safe and stable, collaborative robots hit the pain points of manufacturing

First of all, collaborative robots can efficiently and safely collaborate with employees, and Universal Robots continues to shorten cycle time and increase uptime through innovative iterations, helping customers to successfully meet or even exceed production goals, and bring more products to market faster. While improving efficiency, collaborative robots can also reduce errors in manual measurement, thereby improving product yield and reducing consumables costs, which is conducive to cost control and profit margin improvement.

Secondly, the deployment of collaborative robots is very convenient and flexible, and enterprises do not need to change the existing plant layout, nor do they need to hire programming talents for this purpose. Specifically, Universal Robots’ cobots are quick to install, typically taking less than an hour for an untrained operator to unpack the cobot, unpack the cobot, install the robot, and program the first simple job; easy Move and adjust, can flexibly and quickly redeploy and switch tasks in multiple production line processes, adapt to flexible production rhythms, and respond agilely to the diverse and changing needs of the market; programming is simple, even for operators without programming experience, only need Quick setup and operation via an intuitive and convenient interface requires little training.

In addition, customers’ pursuit of cost reduction and efficiency increase must be carried out on the premise of ensuring safety and stability. From the perspective of robot stability, once a failure occurs, it will affect the progress of the entire production line process. From a safety point of view, it is difficult for traditional industrial robots to safely interact with humans, so it is necessary to set up safety fences to separate workers from robots, which is time-consuming and occupies a large area. Collaborative robots, on the other hand, can interact directly with employees at close range, and can match existing work cells and workstations, with high safety and no need for additional guardrails.

The recently released UR20 redefines the next generation of industrial collaborative robots

Earlier this year, Universal Robots launched its new product UR20, which is its first next-generation industrial collaborative robot product, redefining collaborative robots. Through the new design and complete reconstruction of the Robotic arm, the UR20 collaborative robot has achieved innovative breakthroughs in terms of load capacity and operating range. While achieving a large load of 20KG and a working radius of 1750 mm, the repeatable positioning accuracy is as high as ±0.05 mm.

In terms of efficiency, the UR20 can increase joint speed by 65% ​​(depending on joint size), increase average speed by 30%, and increase joint torque by 25% in tight spaces.

In terms of reliability, the UR20 has undergone a comprehensive redesign, with a simple joint structure. Compared with the e series, the number of parts is reduced by about half, which can shorten downtime and further improve reliability.

In terms of safety, the UR20 has 17 customizable safety functions, IP54 protection level, and a certified programmable safety system that allows users to flexibly customize safety parameters to meet their risk assessment requirements.

At the same time, the UR20 continues the flexibility of Universal Robots. While improving the load and working radius, the UR20 body is still light, with a weight (including cables) of 64 kg, a small footprint, and a base diameter of only 245 mm. mm, so it is easy to deploy and move, and can achieve more in a small space.

Scene accumulation and expansion of huge ecological empowerment functions

With 17 years of experience, Universal Robots has deployed more than 50,000 collaborative robots worldwide, many of which are deployed in China. During this process, Universal Robots has accumulated rich experience in various application scenarios, and continuously feeds back customer feedback into product iterations. Today, Universal Robots’ product portfolio can support loads from 3kg to 20kg and cover working radii from 500mm to 1750mm, continuously providing targeted solutions for richer scenarios.

For various scenarios, Universal Robots can also easily expand functions, which is supported by Universal Robots’ huge UR+ ecosystem. Universal Robots’ rich ecosystem includes more than 1,100 integrators, distributors and independent partners, which creates a rich set of components, kits and applications for Universal Robots that work seamlessly with every model of Universal Robots. In addition, Universal Robots’ cobot arms can be combined with Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) to form hybrid robots. AMR acts as a human’s “leg”, while a collaborative robot arm acts as a “hand”. The combination of the two further enriches the application scenarios of robots.

In September this year, Universal Robots will join hands with global mobile robot manufacturer Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) to participate in the China International Industry Fair to be held at the Shanghai National Convention and Exhibition Center from September 26th to 30th. At that time, Universal Robots will bring a variety of collaborative robot products covering the automotive, electronics, metal processing, food packaging and other industries to debut, and demonstrate Universal Robots in welding, machine tool loading and unloading, wafer handling, dual-arm collaboration, palletizing, assembly, The latest application in scenarios such as dispensing. Universal Robots welcomes industry colleagues to visit booth A005 in Hall 8.1 to jointly explore how the manufacturing industry can flexibly respond to the ever-changing market environment and demands.