Many factors should be considered when selecting a robot. Everything from cycle time specs to the purpose of the robot needs to be considered to find the robot that is best suited for your needs.
- Robot selection can mean the difference between great success and disappointing failure. With such an important task at hand, how does one go about selecting the right robot? The answer is larger than just selecting the right robot because chances are that more applications will come up over time that require a variety of robots.
- Having these items defined up front provides a core for a common question list to prospective robot vendors.
- What do you want the robot to do? (What kind of application is it?)
- Have a rough idea of the layout for the robot workcell. (The right robot vendors can help you with this, but you should have a rough idea of what is needed.)
- What placement precision is required? (What are your manufacturing tolerances?)
- What are the throughput requirements? (i.e. How many parts per minute?)
- What peripheral devices will be working with the robots? (Vision, Feeders, Conveyors, etc.)
- What kind of ROI do you need for your project to be successful?
- Check things like duty cycles vs. just looking at cycle time specs to get a better picture of real world performance.
- The best robot vendors will give a demo showing how their products are easy to use so you can decide for yourself based on what you see.
- The best trainers and the ability to deliver courses at their facility or yours.
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