What are the application scenarios of the small unit bending robot workstation?

Application scenario of small unit bending robot workstation

Small-unit bending robot workstation is a lightweight bending automation unit developed for small and medium-sized sheet metal parts. It integrates industrial robots, CNC bending machines, automatic loading and unloading tools, positioning fixtures, safety protection and visual assistance modules. It is different from large-scale heavy-duty bending robot systems. It has the advantages of small floor space, flexible deployment, short debugging period, and is suitable for sheet metal processing scenes with light workpiece weight, many specifications, medium batch and frequent production change. It is widely used in flexible production of sheet metal parts in many industries and is effective.

In the electrical equipment manufacturing industry, this workstation is one of the most important application scenarios. Most of the sheet metal components in high and low voltage distribution cabinets, distribution boxes, control boxes and terminal boxes belong to small-sized bent parts, such as cabinet mounting brackets, door panel stiffeners, partition boards and terminal fixing brackets. The materials of this kind of workpieces are mostly cold-rolled steel plates and galvanized plates, the weight of a single piece is usually 0.5-15 kg, the bending process is usually 2-8 passes, the product models are various, the order specifications of different projects often change, and the output of a single batch varies from dozens to thousands. In the traditional manual bending mode, sheet bending is prone to rebound and angle deviation, and repeated operation for a long time will cause operator fatigue, and the size of batch products fluctuates greatly. The small unit bending robot workstation can quickly change the fixture and program, and quickly switch production for different distribution boxes, thus realizing the automation of the whole process of sheet feeding, positioning, bending and finished product palletizing. At the same time, the electrical sheet metal parts require high surface quality, and the stable grasping by robots can reduce the scratch of the sheet metal, ensure the integrity of the galvanized layer, meet the appearance and accuracy requirements of the sheet metal of the power distribution cabinet, and is suitable for the multi-variety and small-batch production mode of the electrical complete equipment factory.

Small unit bending workstations are widely used in the field of cabinet and communication equipment sheet metal. Parts such as accessories of 5G communication base station, server chassis shell, switch shell, network equipment panel, etc. are mostly 0.8 to 3 mm thick, and the workpieces are small in shape and require high bending accuracy, and some workpieces still have multi-directional complex folding edges. The product iteration speed of communication industry is fast, the demand for new product proofing and small batch trial production is frequent, the cost of large-scale automatic bending production line is high, and it is inconvenient to move, while the small unit workstation occupies only a few square meters, which can be independently arranged in the spare area of the workshop, and even the position of the workstation can be adjusted according to the production plan. In the research and development stage of new products, engineers only need to enter the bending procedure to quickly complete the sample bending; In the mass production stage, multiple batches of panels and brackets with different specifications can be processed continuously, the bending angle tolerance can be controlled stably, the dimensional error caused by manual operation can be reduced, and the assembly matching degree of the chassis sheet metal can be guaranteed.

It is also an important application scenario that construction machinery and agricultural machinery match small pieces of sheet metal processing. Instrument covers of construction machinery, operating handle guard plates, small protective baffles, protective covers of agricultural machinery and equipment, mounting supports, etc. The materials of the workpieces include cold-rolled plates and hot-rolled plates, and some of the workpieces have corner-shaped structures, so the single batch order scale is medium. This kind of workpiece has strong repeatability in bending, and there are safety risks in manual bending. Hand-pressing accidents of benders often occur in small parts processing scenes. The workstation of small unit bending robot is equipped with safety grating and protective fence, and the robot automatically completes the conveying, taking and placing of plates, so that personnel do not need to be near the bending die area, which greatly reduces the potential safety hazard. At the same time, the supporting parts of construction machinery have strict requirements on the stability of bending dimensions. In mass production, the robot has high precision of repeated positioning, which can ensure the consistency of workpieces in the same batch and reduce the workload of polishing and repairing in subsequent assembly.

Medical device sheet metal production requires strict cleanliness and workpiece accuracy, which is suitable for small unit bending workstation application. Medical equipment shell, instrument support, protective cover and internal sheet metal parts of medical operation console are mostly made of stainless steel sheet, which has obvious bending resilience characteristics, so it is difficult to control the angle stably by manual bending, and manual contact is easy to leave fingerprints and scratches on the workpiece surface, which affects the surface treatment effect of products. The small unit bending robot uses flexible sucker or gripper to grab the plate, which can control the grasping force and reduce the surface damage. Matching bending compensation program can automatically correct the angle deviation caused by the rebound of stainless steel. Medical sheet metal orders are often multi-variety, small and medium-batch, and there are many kinds of products. The rapid production change capacity of workstations can meet the needs of alternate production of different medical equipment parts and adapt to the characteristics of medical device industry orders.

In addition, kitchen appliances, security equipment, rail transit small sheet metal fields are also widely used. Small supports for kitchen equipment, internal partitions of ovens, housings for security monitoring equipment, small sheet metal parts for road gates and small supports for rail transit interiors are small in size and varied in variety. Many small and medium-sized sheet metal processing plants have scattered orders and many customized parts, which are not suitable for large-scale automatic bending production lines. Small unit bending robot workstation has lower investment threshold and simple debugging. Ordinary technicians can complete program editing and production change after short-term training, taking into account mass production and proofing.

On the whole, the core of the small-unit bending robot workstation is suitable for small and medium-sized sheet metal bending scenes with multiple varieties and small and medium batches, giving consideration to flexibility, cost and safety. It can be used as a stand-alone automation unit independently, and can also be connected with the upstream laser cutting and blanking station to realize the connection of sheet metal blanking and bending. Under the background of rising labor costs and increasing demand for product customization in the sheet metal industry, small unit bending workstation has become the mainstream solution for automatic upgrading of small and medium-sized sheet metal enterprises, which helps enterprises to improve product accuracy, reduce the risk of work-related injuries and release manpower to complete high value-added processes such as assembly and inspection.