Metalworkers are faced with several challenges: high variance in workpieces with small batch sizes, high cost pressure and a lack of personnel due to strenuous and monotonous sheet metal processing activities. With the Schmalz ivOS Sheet Metal Solution Kit, operations can automate the loading of machines – simply, flexibly and economically.
Sheet metal processors and contract manufacturers want to produce efficiently in order to be profitable and secure their competitiveness. The challenge: high part variance with fluctuating batch sizes. The shortage of labor and rising labor costs exacerbate the situation. The use of robots can provide a remedy here and ensure a lasting improvement. However, classic robot systems and bin-picking solutions have often failed in the past when it came to flexibility and adaptability. This meant that humans were indispensable for the strenuous and monotonous loading and unloading of machines. Teaching in new workpieces used to be time-consuming and usually required two specialists: on the one hand, the specialist for image processing or 3D sensor technology and, on the other, the robot professional for programming, as the grippers also had to be changed as required.
With their ivOS Sheet Metal Solution Kit, the vacuum experts from the Black Forest elegantly automate sheet metal part handling and thus offer sheet metal processing operations the optimum solution quickly and easily. The Solution Kit consists of the latest 3D camera technology, the ivOS vision operating system and the highly flexible FMG matrix gripper. This gripper consists of seven modules, each with twelve suction cups, which are blocked together to form a flexible area gripper. The 84 individually controllable suction points adapt automatically to the changing workpiece geometries. This offers applications maximum flexibility when handling different sheet metals and gripper changes can be reduced to a minimum.
A learning system
As the control of this universally applicable gripper system is complex, a learning AI (artificial intelligence) takes over the task. It uses a camera system to recognize the unknown workpieces and controls the gripper so that it can pick up the sheet metal in the best possible way. The ivOS vision operating system then monitors the grip quality during the handling cycle and navigates the robot with the product to the target tray without collision. This all happens autonomously, without the user needing any specialist knowledge to operate the system. And best of all, the ivOS software platform works with grippers, cameras, picking software and robots from different manufacturers, which can be easily connected and controlled in real time. This will also make it easier to automate other applications in the future.