Robotics for Electronics Manufacturing

Robotics for Electronics Manufacturing

The specialists from SICK and Academic Robotics have anticipated developments in electronics production, which we have collated.

According to Research and Markets, the global growth rate for the electronics manufacturing industry over the next five years is predicted to be close to 12%. The International Federation of Robotics estimates that from 2018 to 2020, there will be an average of 4,151 robot installations per year in the United States. Numerous businesses are aiming to move production activities back to the United States and Canada in order to better simplify operations in light of recent supply chain challenges that have severely impacted the electronics sector.

As a result, flexible automation is becoming more and more necessary to support this expansion and replace human workers in routine, repetitive operations. Many in the sector have noticed a renewed emphasis on raising manufacturing quality and yield for items including consumer electronics, semiconductors, fiber optics, and industrial machinery.

One way to achieve this improvement is by using robot arms that are equipped with sophisticated sensing systems. To explore some trends they are observing in the robotics and vision industries, we got together with specialists from SICK and Academic Robotics.

Easily Operable Robots

There is an increasing need for these new partners to be highly user-friendly and simple to incorporate into production as the electronics sector starts to further embrace robots as a tool for increasing productivity.

Stanislaw Glazier, Director of Applications and Support at Mecademic Robotics, stated that "current collaborative robots on the market are significantly easier to use, making it much simpler to integrate into an existing production process and there is no reason an industrial robot should be any different."

One way an industrial robot may be more user-friendly is by already having an ecosystem set up with all required components chosen and prepared for usage. Grippers, sophisticated 2D or 3D vision sensor systems, and the robot itself may all fall under this category.

According to Glazier, "We continually invest in our Application Engineering Support for our robot, saving our clients time on engineering."

The main benefit of robot systems like those from Mecademic Robotics and SICK is that they can be set up and run without requiring a lot of programming or robotics expertise. In fact, the Meca500 robot's streamlined programming environment necessitates no proprietary programming language, which is one of its key benefits. As a result, it is easier to use and program than industrial robots currently on the market.

According to Naveen Krishnan, Area Manager at Mecademic Robotics, "In many cases, industrial robots used in High-Mix-Low-Volume manufacturing are highly optimized for just one process and, once you have to change to a new application, it requires significant re-programming efforts due to changes in featuring and tooling, etc." "Our system offers flexibility in integration, is linked, precise, and user-friendly. This enables our users to set up the system without requiring a lot of engineering work.

Robotics that are adaptable and agile

Flexible robotic automation can help fill the manpower shortage that the sector is now experiencing. Although a lot of the production was previously done abroad, moving it back to North America necessitates adjusting the production methods. Vision systems are required to develop these adaptable and agile solutions.

Robots may be highly useful in higher-mix applications, but this high-mix, low-volume operations aren't necessarily straightforward to automate, according to Nick Longworth, Market Product Manager for Robot Guidance Vision Systems at SICK. When doing pick-and-place operations, "the easiest approach to show a good return on investment is to employ an easy-to-use machine vision system"

Although deploying vision-enabled robots onto the factory floor can be challenging, doing so enables robots to do boring, repetitive jobs without having to incur extra fees for specialized features or engineering services each time a process or product changes.

"We will normally require a vision system to do an inspection, product localization, measuring, etc. for every robot application. Every stage of the production cycle has to be confirmed or examined. Before going on to the next station, each and every assembly, gluing, and other operation must be checked, according to Krishnan. "Vision is the industry's most reliable inspection system. Because they recognize the usefulness of a vision system, many robots have built-in vision systems.

Inspection and testing of vision solutions

Finding the ideal robot is important, but so is finding the ideal vision solution. The robot cannot observe its environment and adjust to it without machine vision.

Longworth said that a great vision system, such as a 2D or 3D camera, can actively adapt to whatever the robot is seeing while they are working together. As a result, you won't need to build costly features to accommodate these production-related adjustments.

For instance, by utilizing SICK PLOC2D or PLB vision-guided robot systems, manufacturers may quickly adjust to whatever part is being manufactured that day. Prospector and Inspector, two SICK inspection devices, may assist firms in maintaining quality within the parts being produced.
Principal Benefits of mecademic Industrial Robots

·         simple, integrated controllers

·         Very tiny and has a modest footprint

·         With a repeatability of 5 micrometers, it is incredibly accurate.

·         A system with a flexible programming environment that supports numerous native interfaces (TCP/IP, Ethernet, Ether CAT) and is independent of hardware and software.

·         Flexible installation that may be positioned anywhere you choose, including upside-down and sideways

·         Free firmware upgrades are offered

·         little power usage