Robotic Systems Emerging as CNC Machine Tool Replacement

Brief Summary:

Robotic systems are replacing a significant portion of the computer numerical control (CNC) machine tool market.  Higher efficiency, lower equipment costs, and superior flexibility have made 6-axis robots replace CNC machine tools.  

• Robots are poised to take away a significant portion of the CNC machine tool market.
• Emerging technology is making it possible for robot systems to perform many diverse manufacturing processes - such as complex cutting and material removal, grinding, mold creation, surface finishing and drilling and tapping applications - that were previously performed almost exclusively by CNC machines.
• Process-specific expertise about material removal rates, drilling metals and rotation speeds, along with cutting angles and optimized cutting paths, are just a few of the issues that have been solved and encapsulated in these third-party CAD/CAM programs.
• CNC programs follow a standard call RS-274D created by the Electronic Industry Association (EIA) in the early 1960s.
• Robots use the same kind of information to process a part.
• Each robot manufacturer uses its own proprietary programming language; no industry stan­dard exists. This lack of standards is the reason that the robot industry has not enjoyed the same kind of third-party CAD/CAM support as the CNC industry.
• The robot market was too small and fragmented to provide the kind of return on investment needed to make third-party software devel­opment efforts worthwhile.
• This CNC machine tool software allows man­ufacturers to take advantage of the lower overall equipment cost and increased flex­ibility that six-axis robots can offer as opposed to more expensive CNC machines with only 3- to 5-axes of motion.
• Six-axis robots can perform many of the same tasks more efficiently, with a faster and cleaner process that provides high throughput rates and virtually unlimited flexibility.
• Many applications in the plastics indus­try require trimming, deburring, drilling and routing of molded parts. Water-jet trimming and cutting of automotive carpets and headliners are other processes that are being done by robots programmed like traditional CNCs. More traditional applications such as robot­ic trimming, deburring and drilling of air-craft body panels are currently being evaluated.
• For the opportunity to reduce capital equipment expenditures by 50 percent or even more while increasing flexibility over tradi­tional 3- and 5-axis machine tools, many manufacturers will no doubt make the switch from CNC machine tools to 6-axis robots now that software tools have solved the program translation barrier.

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