The automotive industry has always been the most important field of robot application. With the improvement of automation demand, the application of industrial robots has been expanded greatly. Besides the traditional welding application, robots have also been widely used in the fields of cutting materials on machine tools, material handling and palletizing, grinding, spraying, assembly and so on. Metal forming machine tool is an important part of machine tool. Forming process is usually associated with high labor intensity, noise pollution, metal dust, etc. Sometimes it is in high temperature, high humidity and even polluted environment. The work is simple and boring, and it is difficult for enterprises to recruit people. The integration of industrial robots and forming machine tools can not only solve the problem of employing people in enterprises, but also improve the efficiency and safety of processing and the accuracy of processing, which has great development space.

Integrated Application of CNC Bending Machine


There are two main ways for the application of robot bending integration. First, the robot is equipped with vacuum sucker, and the bending unit is formed by magnetic tensioning feeding frame, positioning platform, feeding platform and turning frame. The second is the flexible processing line of sheet metal formed by robot and laser equipment or CNC rotary press, industrial robot walking axle, sheet metal transmission line, positioning table and vacuum sucker grasping hand. Eston uses his own technology and platform of robot control system and CNC system of machine tool to realize seamless connection, develops bending software package, and realizes closed-loop control of robot bracket in bending process. At different bending speeds, the robot achieves complete tracking of automatic matching. The bending software package also shortens the teaching time of bending from the past 2-3 days to 2-3 hours. It is well used in the processing of switch cabinet, file cabinet, elevator, anti-theft door and so on.


Press stamping integrated application


There are two main ways of integrated application of robot and press stamping. One is the punching and unloading of a single robot: the sheet metal is moved from the stacking platform to the positioning platform by the robot, and then transferred to the press die for stamping. After stamping, the sheet material is put into the stacking platform by the robot to realize the automatic loading and unloading of a single press robot. The second is the punching connection of robots: the punching connection is established between multiple presses through multiple robots. According to the forming process requirements of the workpiece, it is necessary to cooperate with multiple press. The whole production line consists of a stacking robot, a feeding robot, a transmission and handling robot between the press and a tail-line robot. Compared with the linear coordinate manipulator, the industrial robot is more flexible, has no contour requirements for the die, and is easy to integrate. Eston makes use of the seamless connection between the autonomous press control system and the robot control system to achieve the best coordination between the robot's action and the press, and uses the field bus to maximize the efficiency and security of the whole production line.


Integrated Application of Hot Die Forging


The hot die forging production line is usually composed of two die forging presses, one for stamping and the other for trimming. The integrated application of hot die forging robots usually consists of two robots, one is responsible for transferring the high temperature material processed by IF furnace to the stamping die forging press, the other is responsible for transferring the material from the stamping die forging press to the other die forging press for trimming. In order to prevent the high temperature stamping parts from sticking to the die, graphite lubrication is needed after each stamping. The lubrication can be accomplished by robots or by special agencies. Because forging is a harsh environment caused by high temperature, high humidity and graphite lubrication, special attention should be paid to the protection work of the robot and the anti-thermal radiation ability of the robot itself. The 4-5-6 axis motor of the Eston Robot Company has the structural characteristics of self-far from thermal radiation at the joint of the robot arm and the small arm. The electronic cam control system is installed in the die forging press to coordinate the operation of the die forging press with that of the robot, improve the processing efficiency and enhance the safety of the system.


Welding application


Welding is the post-process of sheet metal processing of forming machine tools. Robot welding has two types: resistance welding and arc welding. The application of welding robot accounts for more than 40% of the total application of the robot. The application of arc welding is based on robots, which are equipped with welding machines, wire feeders, welding torches, fixtures and other components to form a welding workstation. Eston can provide 6 kg, 1 400, 1 600 and 2 000 mm arc welding robot workstations. Resistance welding application is a spot welding workstation with robots as the core and equipped with spot welding guns, welding controllers, water and gas units, pipeline packages, fixtures and other components. Eston can provide 220 kg, arm length 2600 mm dedicated resistance welding robot workstation. In addition, Eston Automation developed a special welding software package for welding applications, which integrates the welding expert parameter database into the robot system to meet various types of needs.


Robot is a typical representative of advanced manufacturing technology and automation equipment. Intelligent industrial equipment has become the basis of upgrading and transformation of global manufacturing industry. The integrated application of industrial robots and CNC machine tools makes intelligent manufacturing and digital workshop and intelligent factory move from concept to reality.