Repetition accuracy is not a replacement for process stability
Automated manufacturing processes are subject to a fundamental error in the thought process: You expect a precisely programmed robot to automatically deliver stable results. In practice, the opposite is often true.
Although robots are capable of repetition with extreme accuracy, that alone does not guarantee stable processes since the result not only depends on movement but rather on the entire processing process. Companies that want to improve process stability must therefore detect instability early on.
The process continuously changes
Robots are accurate but they do not respond intuitively to changes in the process. On the other hand, production processes are dynamic: Tools undergo wear, materials change, temperatures fluctuate, forces vary.
The things that experienced employees intuitively compensate for during manual processing must be specifically considered, managed, or mastered via stable process windows in automatic operation.
The result: An ostensibly more accurate process delivers varying results.
The importance of influencing factors
A robot can perform a movement identically a thousand times. However, identical movements do not automatically result in identical results. This is because the result is produced not just by movement but also the interplay of several influencing factors.
Even minor changes in one of these areas may have major impacts on the result. And if you automate unstable processes, you automate instability.
Tool geometry and condition
Process forces and contact conditions
Material characteristics
Drive and control
Process parameters
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Identify typical warning signals
Unstable robotics processes hardly emerge clearly and immediately. They often manifest in symptoms that are initially attributed to other causes, but they are the first warning signals. They show that the process itself has not been designed with enough stability.
Have you considered that the following symptoms are already warning signals?
- Fluctuating surface quality despite robots.
- Scrap without a clearly identifiable cause.
- Rework even though automation has been performed.
- Frequent manual adjustment of parameters.
- Reduced tool service life.
- Uncertainty in process changes.
Stable processes are created systematically – not randomly
A stable robotics process is the result of a systematic understanding. The robot alone does not determine quality and efficiency; rather, it is the interplay among the following factors:
- Tool and application
- Process forces
- Drive technology
- Tool characteristics
- Wear behavior
For people in charge of production and processes, this means that stability emerges when influencing factors are identified and mastered, interactions are understood, and process limits are defined.
