Robotics & Automation News

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manufacturing

Wikifactory secures $2.5 million funding to expand its manufacturing marketplace

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Wikifactory, an online platform for collaboratively creating physical products, has secured $2.5 million in pre-series A funding from existing shareholders and new investors including, Seier Capital, the investment vehicle of Lars Seier Christensen. This brings Wikifactory’s funding to date to a total of nearly $8 million.

Wikifactory enables developers, designers, engineers and startups from across the globe to collaborate, prototype and produce hardware solutions in real-time that solve real world problems.

The company is working to build the Internet of Production, which is an emerging concept of a distributed, interoperable, open standards-based system, linking together product definitions, software services, and manufacturing-as-a-service (MaaS) solutions. [Read more…] about Wikifactory secures $2.5 million funding to expand its manufacturing marketplace

How Additive Manufacturing Works and Provides Benefits

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Additive manufacturing is known as 3D printing. Computer-aided programs are used to create 3D objects.

Additive manufacturing is getting popular nowadays. It is a very cost-effective process to design the objects.

Objects are designed with the help of materials such as plastic, ceramic or metal powder. After the design, these printing objects are assembled with heat or a laser beam. [Read more…] about How Additive Manufacturing Works and Provides Benefits

Additive manufacturing startups MakerBot and Ultimaker agree to merge

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MakerBot and Ultimaker, two of the best-known startups in desktop 3D printing, have come to a “business combination agreement” – or a merger.

The company says the move will accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing by providing a comprehensive desktop 3D printing ecosystem of hardware, software, and materials.

The new entity will be backed by existing investors, NPM Capital and Stratasys, and will benefit from a planned cash investment of $62.4 million to fuel innovation and expansion into new markets. [Read more…] about Additive manufacturing startups MakerBot and Ultimaker agree to merge

ABB Robotics unveils world’s first robot-painted art car

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ABB Robotics has collaborated with two world-renowned artists – eight-year-old Indian child prodigy Advait Kolarkar and Dubai-based digital design collective Illusorr – to create the world’s first robot-painted art car.

ABB’s award-winning PixelPaint technology has, without human intervention, perfectly recreated Advait’s swirling, monochromatic design as well as Illusorr’s tri-color geometrical patterns.

Equipped with 1,000 nozzles in the printer head, ABB’s IRB 5500 paint robots were able to complete the highly complex artworks in less than 30 minutes. [Read more…] about ABB Robotics unveils world’s first robot-painted art car

Industrial robot costs to drop by half in the next three years

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Karthee Madasamy, founder and managing partner at MFV Partners

According to ARK Invest research, industrial robot costs will drop by 50-60 percent by 2025. This dramatic drop in costs, combined with other factors such as the global pandemic’s acceleration of industries embracing automation, has resulted in a situation where interest in robotics has reached a fever pitch.

In fact, in the first year of the pandemic venture firms poured $6.3 billion into robotics companies, up nearly 50 percent from the $4.3 billion they invested over the same period a year earlier.

Further, in North America, industrial robot sales had their strongest year ever in 2021. With this activity it’s not surprising that the global market is forecasted to reach $31 billion by 2028. [Read more…] about Industrial robot costs to drop by half in the next three years

Comau expands Jeep manufacturing lines in Brazil

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Comau has expanded the end-to-end body manufacturing lines at one of the most modern car manufacturing plants in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco to produce the new 7-seat Jeep Commander SUV.

Comau has been tasked with increasing the flexibility of 14 complex lines to handle 4 different vehicle models in a completely random production flow.

The increased flexibility also extends to model-specific assembly, welding and quality inspection operations based on available inputs. [Read more…] about Comau expands Jeep manufacturing lines in Brazil

Absolute Machine Tools agrees to partnership with Scytec Consulting

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In its continual pursuit to transform shop floors across the world, Scytec has agreed a partnership with Absolute Machine Tools.

This exciting partnership between two industry leaders will see Scytec’s revolutionary data collection software, DataXchange being provided with CNC machines being sold by Absolute Machine Tools for maximizing machine uptime and opening the door to hidden revenue streams for end-users.

Partnering with Absolute Machine Tools is another leap forward in Scytec’s mission to modernize the manufacturing industry by utilizing and leveraging data collection and it is paramount to the next big step in digital transformation. [Read more…] about Absolute Machine Tools agrees to partnership with Scytec Consulting

Comau and IUVO design new wearable robots to support manual work

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Comau and IUVO are developing an innovative wearable robotics solution to improve the ergonomics of operators engaged in manually moving loads at Esselunga, a leading large-scale retail trade company. The aim is to improve well-being by reducing lower back fatigue.

The action of the exoskeleton will assist the back muscles that are typically stimulated during lifting and handling tasks, thus creating short- and long-term benefits through a significant reduction in physical effort and fatigue.

There are three protagonists of the project. Comau’s role is to lead the engineering process related to the new exoskeletal device for lumbar support. IUVO’s design team will specialize in the conception, development and testing of wearable robotic technologies. [Read more…] about Comau and IUVO design new wearable robots to support manual work

IndustrialML and one to ONE Holdings expand partnership to serve galvanized steel tube market

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IndustrialML, an enterprise software company serving industrial customers, is expanding its partnership with one to ONE Holdings (o2Oh) to develop and bring real-time smart factory solutions to the galvanized steel tubing market around the world.

IndustrialML has a diverse team of experts in manufacturing, enterprise software, and data analysis dedicated to helping the underserved majority of manufacturers – the 99 percent of companies looking to help their employees make and communicate decisions more quickly and effectively.

Nearly all manufacturers are trying not to build new, fully automated factories that stop relying on human intuition; rather, they want to help employees make smarter decisions, both about setting up their production lines and responding to production issues, even as more and more tenured factory workers begin to retire. [Read more…] about IndustrialML and one to ONE Holdings expand partnership to serve galvanized steel tube market

New large ABB robots ‘increase speed and flexibility’ in electric vehicle battery production

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ABB is adding two new robot product lines to its portfolio of large robots for complex manufacturing applications.

ABB says the new robots deliver “enhanced speed, accuracy, flexibility, and a more robust design”, including integrated process cabling, adding that the ABB IRB 5710 and 5720 robots deliver “increased productivity and enhanced performance with higher uptime for applications” including electric vehicle manufacture, foundry, forging, rubber, plastics, and metal fabrication.

Available in eight variants, the IRB 5710 and IRB 5720 present a choice of options for payloads from 70 kg to 180 kg and reaches from 2.3 m to 3 m. [Read more…] about New large ABB robots ‘increase speed and flexibility’ in electric vehicle battery production