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Volvo Vehicles is deploying greater than 1,300 industrial robots from ABB to assist construct its subsequent technology of electrical autos. Volvo will use ABB’s new IRB 6710, 6720, and 6730 industrial robots for quite a lot of duties, together with spot welding, riveting, meting out stream drilling, and extra.
The aforementioned robots shall be used at Volvo’s services in Torslanda, Sweden and Daqing, China. The robots are a part of ABB’s new line of modular industrial robots that characteristic interchangeable hyperlinks that allow customers to simply change the scale and attain of every mannequin. The robots are appropriate for payloads starting from 150kg to 310kg, with a attain from 2.5m to three.2m
We mentioned the modular robotics innovation at size with Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics, in July 2023 on The Robotic Report Podcast. Together with the {hardware} and practical packages, ABB’s newest vary of OmniCore robotic controllers will assist to ship power financial savings of as much as 20% at these websites.
“The automotive business’s historic transformation, pushed by growing client demand for electrical autos and a want to function extra sustainably, is creating new alternatives in addition to challenges for international producers,” stated Segura. “This newest dedication from our associate Volvo Vehicles demonstrates our shared focus of delivering extra sustainable manufacturing. By way of our new, energy-efficient giant robotic household and OmniCore controllers, we are going to assist to ship power financial savings of as much as 20 % at websites around the globe.”
The primary deployment of those robots will happen in early 2024.
ABB’s 2023 12 months in assessment
As traditional, it was a busy 12 months for ABB’s robotics group. One among its main bulletins was a brand new European robotics hub that can price practically $300 million. Primarily based in Västerås, Sweden, the power will improve ABB’s manufacturing capability for its collaborative and industrial robotic arms by 50% and allow it to higher serve the European market. Segura lately advised The Robotic Report ABB will max out its manufacturing capability at its present services by 2026. Building on the brand new campus is anticipated to begin within the first quarter of 2024 and be accomplished by the tip of 2026.
ABB additionally opened in June 2023 its Robotics Packaging and Logistics Headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia. The power serves as ABB‘s devoted middle for robotic automation options within the logistics and packaging industries.
Along with the brand new IRB modular industrial robots, right here’s a take a look at a few of the robots ABB launched this 12 months:
Robotic Merchandise Picker – AI and vision-based system that detects and picks gadgets in unstructured environments
IRB 1090 – an industrial robotic for instructional functions
GoFa 10 and GoFa 12 cobots – new cobot arms deal with payloads of as much as 10 and 12 kg, respectively
AMRs with VSLAM – The autonomous cell robots ABB acquired from ASTI Cell Robotics now use Visible Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VLSAM) for navigation and impediment avoidance.
IRB 9030 SCARA – a robotic arm that handles payloads weighing 12 and 22 kg for pick-and-place and meeting duties
ABB additionally spent hundreds of thousands to improve its current North American robotics headquarters and manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan. ABB stated this funding will profit clients within the Americas, significantly these in development sectors together with electrical autos, healthcare, packaging and logistics.
And simply final week, we received our first glimpse of a cell manipulator that makes use of ABB’s GoFa cobots and AMRs. XtalPi and ABB teamed as much as produce a variety of automated laboratory workstations in China. The businesses stated ABB’s GoFa cobots and XtalPi’s software program will enhance analysis and improvement productiveness in biopharmaceuticals, chemical engineering and chemistry, and new-energy supplies.