The International Robot Industry Report

238 Pages·1987·8.374 MB·English

by  John Mortimer, Brian Rooks (auth.)

The International Robot Industry Report
IFS
THE
INTERNATIONAL ROBOT INDUSTRY
REPORT
John Mortimer
and
Brian Rooks
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
J ohn M ortimerl Brian Rooks
IFS (Publications) Ltd
35-39 High Street
Kempston
Bedford MK427BT
England
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
The International robot industry report.
1. Industrial robot industry
1. Rooks, Brian W.
II. Mortimer, John, 1934-
338.4'7629892 HD9696.R622
ISBN 978-3-540-16353-4 ISBN 978-3-662-13174-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-13174-9
© 1987 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Originally published by IFS (Publications) Ltd, 35-39 High Street, Kempston, Bedford MK42 7BT
and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo in 1987
This work is protected by copyright. The rights covered by this are reserved, in particular
those of translating, reprinting, radio broadcasting, reproduction by photo-mechanical or
similar means as well as the storage and evaluation in data processing installations even if only
extracts are used. Should individual copies for commercial purposes be made with written
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§54, Para 2, ofthe copyright law. The publishers will provide information on the amount of this
remittance.
Phototypeset by Parchment (Oxford) Ltd
Printed by Short Run Press Ltd, Exeter
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Company Profiles 9
Acma Robotique 9
Adaptive Intelligence 12
Adept Technology 13
AEG 16
AKR Robotics - see Kremlin
Altek Automation 17
American Cimflex 19
American Robot Corp. - see American Cimflex
ASEA Robotics AB 23
ASEA Robotics Inc. 27
Automatix 29
Binks-Bullows - see GEC Robot Systems
Bisiach & Carru 32
Blohm + Voss 34
Robert Bosch 36
British Federal 38
John Brown Automation 41
Norman Butters - see Welding Machines (Automated)
Cimcorp43
Cincinnati Milacron 46
Citroen Industrie 49
Cloos International 50
Carl Cloos Schweisstechnik 51
Comau 54
Crantech Robotics Industrial Systems 57
Cybotech 58
Daihen 60
DEA60
DeVilbiss 65
EKE68
Electrolux - see MHU Robotics
Elco Robotics 71
ERL Automation Engineering - see Evershed Robotics
ESAB 73
Evershed Robotics 78
Fanuc 81
Fujitsu 84
Gadelius84
GCA - see Cimcorp
GdA-see EKE
GEC Robot Systems 85
General Electric 87
GMF Robotics 90
Graco Robotics 94
Hahn & Kolb 96
Heckler & Koch 97
Hirata 98
Hitachi 100
IBM 103
IGM 106
Intelledex 108
Jungheinrich 111
Kawasaki Heavy Industries 113
Kobe Steel116
Komatsu 118
Kremlin 120
George Kuikka 122
KUKA 124
Lamberton Robotics 128
Lomir International-see Bisiach & Carru
Manutech 131
Masing Kirkoff - see ESAB
Matsushita 133
Meta Machines 136
MHU Robotics 139
Mitsubishi Electric 140
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 142
Moriyama - see Yamaha
MRS (Automation) 143
Nachi-Fujikoshi 145
NEC 147
NEI Thompson Welding Systems 149
Niko-MAC 151
Nippon Cakki - see Yamaha
Nitto Seiko 154
Nu-Tec156
Osaka Transformer - see Daihen
Panasonic 157
Pentel159
Prab Robots 160
Pressflow 161
Rediffusion Robot Systems - see Reflex Automated Systems & Control
Reflex Automated Systems & Control 163
Reis 166
Renault Automation - see Acma Robotique
Sankyo Seiki 169
Sciaky 171
Seiko Epson 173
Seiko Instruments & Electronics 174
Seiko Instruments USA 176
Seiv Assemblage - see Acma Robotique
Shinmeiwa 177
Sirtes - see Acma Robotique
600 Fanuc Robotics 180
Spine Systems 182
Suwa Seikosha - see Seiko Epson
Syke Automated Systems 184
Taylor Hitec 186
Thermwood 189
Thorn EMI Robotics 191
Tokico 194
T orsteknik 196
Toshiba 197
Toshiba International 199
T rallfa - see ASEA, DeVilbiss and Kobe Steel
Unimation 200
Welding Machines (Automated) 201
Welding Robotics & Automation 204
Westinghouse 206
Yamaha210
Yaskawa Electric America 213
Yaskawa Electric Manufacturing 214
Industrial Robot Specifications 217
INTRODUCTION
Like many other new technologies which have since been seized and
exploited by others, the industrial robot is a British invention. In 1957, a
patent was produced by a British inventor, Cyril Walter Kenward, and later it
became crucial to the future of robotics. For across the Atlantic two robot
builders, Unimation and AMF, both infringed this patent and ultimately a cash
settlement was made to Kenward.
The owner of Unimation Inc. was Joseph Engelberger, an entrepreneur and
avid reader of Isaac Asimov, the writer who helped to create the image of the
benevolent robot. It is claimed that Engelberger's journey of fame down the
road which led to him being hailed as the 'father of robotics' can be traced to
the day that he met George C. Devol at a cocktail party. Devol was an
inventor with an impressive list of patents to his name in the electronics field.
One of Devol's patent applications referred to a Programmed Transfer
Article.
Devol's patent was issued in 1961 as US Patent 2,988,237, and this formed
the basis of the Unimate robot which first saw the light of day in 1960.
The first Unimate was sold to Ford Motor Company which used it to tend a
die-casting machine. It is perhaps ironic that the first robot was used by a
company which refused to recognise the machine as a robot, preferring
instead to call it a Universal Transfer Device.
To Ford, the word robot was too close for comfort to the concept of a job
destroyer, rather than an industry creator, and so even to this day Ford prefers
its own UTD acronym.
Perhaps the Ford people were aware that the word robot came from the
Czech word for worker. In Karel Capek's play, RUR, or Rossums Universal
Robots, robots were created to relieve mankind of work. But in the end the
perfect robots become intolerant of the imperfect humans and decided to
exterminate all human life.
But in practice industrial robots are far from perfect and the industry which
has been built up around them has seen many changes, as many companies
sought to exploit the new technologies.
The first Unimate has now been withdrawn from service at Ford Motor
Company to be given a place in history at the Smithsonian Institute in
Washington, DC. But its birth gave rise to a variety of designs which have
been invaluable to many industries.
Initially, the Unimate and its rival, the Versatran produced by AMF, were
seen as substitutes for manual operatives handling heavy parts in dull
repetitive jobs associated with die-casting machines, injection moulding
machines, stamping machines, metal cutting machines, and so on. The
emphasis was on handling parts and not tools.
It was a small Norwegian agricultural company which created the concept
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THE INTERNA TlONAL ROBOT INDUSTRY REPORT
of a robot to manipulate a processing tool. The T rallfa painting robot was
born out of the necessity to solve a problem. This was in contrast to the birth
of the Unimate which was a solution in search of a problem.
The painting of wheelbarrows at Trallfa's factory in Byrne was becoming a
problem in 1964 when it became increasingly difficult to recruit workers to
tackle the job. Fortunately, within the company there was an eminent
engineer, Ole Molaug, who set to work to produce an automatic painting
machine.
By 1966 the first prototype was running and was installed at the Byrne
factory to paint wheelbarrows. But it was three years later that the company
sold its first robot to a customer. Two machines were installed at Gustavsberg
in Sweden to enamel sanitary ware such as bath tubs, shower trays, and so
on. These are still operational.
Painting was closely followed by spot welding for it turned out that the
Unimate was the near-ideal spot welding automat. In 1968 Unimation took
its first multi-robot order from General Motors and in 1969 these 26 robots
were installed at GM's Lordstown plant to assemble Vega car bodies.
By 1972 the first spot welding line in Europe was operational at Fiat in Turin
and that year also saw Unimation's Japanese licensee, Kawasaki Heavy
Industries, put in a line of robots at Nissan Motors.
So, by the early 1970s, the robot revolution was under way in three of the
major industrialised regions of the world.
Not surprisingly, Japan seized upon the robot with a good deal of
enthusiasm and in 1971 was the first country to form a robot association.
Interestingly, the Japanese were not too precise in their definition of what
constituted a robot and so by the time the USA (1975) and Britian (1977)
came to form similar robot associations, the Japanese were streets ahead
with their robot population. The net effect was to give rise to Japan as a
country with a highly automated industry.
Less obvious was the fact that Japan's automated factories were supported
by countless small, family businesses which were highly labour intensive,and
working many hours at relatively low labour rates. This was not the image
that the Japanese wanted to support in their quest to be seen as the world's
leading hi-tech country.
Certainly, from the viewpoint of statistics, the Japanese have an unusually
large population of robots. According to the German Fraunhofer Institut fur
Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung (lPA) there was an estimated
90,000 robots in Japan at the end of 1986. This compares with 27,000 in the
USA, and 12,400 in West Germany. According to IP,A, in fourth place was
France with an estimated 7,500 at the end of 1986 followed by Italy with an
estimated 5,500. The IPA forecasts show Sweden and the UK in joint sixth
place with an estimated 3,800 robots apiece.
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