Saint-Gobain Abrasives has introduced its new Norton Abrasive Process Solutions (APS) Program which was established to help customers determine the optimal grinding or finishing solution for the application at hand, ranging from simple to complex, off-hand or automated, and for metal fabrication, production grinding and virtually any abrasives operation.
At Ford’s Advanced Manufacturing Center, Javier is tasked with operating the 3D printers completely on his own. He is always on time, very precise in his movements, and he works most of the day – taking only a short break to charge up. This innovative robot on wheels from supplier KUKA, called Javier by Ford’s additive manufacturing operators, is integral to the company’s development of an industry-first process to operate 3D Carbon printers with an autonomous mobile robot rather than a fixed, stationary unit.
New turnkey, "off-the-shelf" Gleason 2700AR system automates larger-gear load/unload to speed throughput, optimize process flow - and take the weight off the operator.
Emerging technologies such as robotics/automation, new materials, additive manufacturing and IIoT can and will change the course of gear manufacturing for the foreseeable future.
Pretty much everyone
old enough to utter the
familiar, dual syllabic refrain of “beep boop” in the electro-mechanical,
monotone pitch from every sci-fi movie ever made has the same idea of what a
robot looks likes.
In robot configurations it is desirable to be able to obtain an arbitrary orientation of the output element or end-effector. This implies a minimum of two independent rotations about two (generally perpendicular) intersecting axes. If, in addition, the out element performs a mechanical task such as in manufacturing or assembly (e.g., drilling, turning, boring, etc.) it may be necessary for the end-effector to rotate about its axis. If such a motion is to be realized with gearing, this necessitates a three-degree-of-freedom, three-dimensional gear train, which provides a mechanical drive of gyroscopic complexity; i.e., a drive with independently controlled inputs about three axes corresponding to azimuth, nutation, and spin.