Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

ABB expands large robot family with four ‘energy saving’ models, 22 variants

ABB Robotics is expanding its large robot range with four new models and 22 variants, offering more choice, increased coverage and greater performance.

The next generation models include the IRB 6710, IRB 6720, IRB 6730 and IRB 6740, suitable for payloads ranging from 150 kg to 310 kg, with a reach from 2.5 m to 3.2 m, offering customers greater choice and significant performance and energy efficiency improvements.

Marc Segura, president of ABB’s Robotics Division, says: “Sustainable production is a major priority of automotive manufacturers, with 78 percent of companies identifying it as important to their business and 77 percent identifying it as a priority for their customers.

“ABB’s four new robots offer 22 variants and energy savings of up to 20 percent, responding to our customer’s needs; offering more choice and greater flexibility for more sustainable production.

“These new robots will help our customers build resilience across a range of industries including automotive, general manufacturing, foundry, food and beverage and logistics.”

The improved energy efficiency is driven by ABB’s OmniCore controller, and a lighter robot design, leading to energy savings of up to 20 percent.

OmniCore also offers high motion control accuracy. Featuring ABB’s TrueMove and QuickMove motion control technology, the robots can achieve class-leading repeatability with a minimum of 0.03 mm deviation.

These capabilities make the new series of robots ideal for complex tasks such as spot welding, laser welding, screwdriving and riveting, allowing automotive manufacturers to achieve high quality assembly.

Joerg Reger, managing director of ABB Robotics Automotive Business Line, says: “Our new robot range meets the needs of the rapidly growing electric vehicle (EV) industry.

“As manufacturers ramp up production of EVs and batteries, they can choose from a wide range of ABB robots to ensure they have the right variant to handle batteries of varying sizes, from individual cells and modules to complete packages.

“They can also perform tasks such as high-precision car body assembly and spot welding and enter restricted areas within a vehicle to install seats or dashboards.”

ABB’s new large robots made their debut at the recent Automatica event.

Leave a Reply