CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

23 May 2013

Events News

Delcam France to Host Free Seminar on Machining with Robots with KUKA

Delcam France will hold a free seminar on machining with robots in association with robot manufacturer KUKA at the KUKA site at Villebon-sur-Yvette, near Paris, on 7th June.  The seminar will feature live demonstrations of robot machining and a presentation on the COMET project on robot machining.

To register for the seminar, please email your details toanne-audrey@delcam.com.

Both Delcam and KUKA believe that robots have the potential to provide a lower-cost alternative to machine tools for the manufacture of larger components.  Areas where they could be used include sculpting of decorative items in stone or plastic, machining of patterns, master models and tooling, and finishing operations, such as trimming, de-burring and drilling, on the resulting parts.

This seminar will show how and where robots could be used and, just as important, where they would not give the desired results, for example, through lack of accuracy or their limited ability to cut harder materials.

One barrier to the use of robots for machining was the cost and complexity of the software needed to program the toolpaths.  Now, the new robot-machining interface in Delcam’s PowerMILL CAM software has made it far easier to program robots for a much wider range of applications.  The ability to program the robot offline from 3D CAD data is both faster and more efficient than the "teach and learn” approach that is often used to create instructions for the equipment.

This new programming method makes it easier for manufacturers to take advantage of the many potential benefits of using robots.  Firstly, the cost of installing a robot is far less than the price of a large machine tool with a similar working envelope.  In addition, the flexibility of the robot means that complex operations can be carried out in a single set-up, so cutting production times and reducing the number of fixtures needed. 

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