As labor shortages in the manufacturing industries continue to swell, a continued uptick in demand for robotics is expected. Along with this surge in robot hardware, growth in accompanying software intelligence is also expected to help make robots more adaptable to new applications and allow less experienced users to more easily operate them.
Two new robots from ABB—the IRB 5710 and IRB 5720—have been developed to address these industry issues. According to the company, the new robots offer position repeatability of 0.04-0.05 mm, path repeatability of 0.1-0.14 mm, and path accuracy of 1-1.2 mm, making them faster and more accurate than other robots in their class. In addition, their software intelligence allows them to be mounted in numerous configurations, including floor, angled, inverted, and semi-shelf, increasing design flexibility. Both robots are available in eight variants, with payloads ranging from 70-180 kg and reaches from 2.3-3 m. ABB notes that both robots are designed for material handling, machine tending, and assembly production tasks in applications such as forging, rubber, plastics, and metal fabrication.
The robots also feature integrated cabling, which makes use of ABB’s LeanID Integrated DressPack, which allows for the cables to be routed inside a robot’s upper arm and wrist, rather than externally, protecting them from damage and wear. ABB says this helps reduce downtime and extend the robots’ service lives.
Onboard both robots is ABB’s OmniCore V250XT controller, which features the TrueMove and PathMove modules from ABB’s RobotWare controller software. TrueMove ensures that the motion path followed by the robot is the same as the programmed path regardless of the robot’s speed, while QuickMove enables the robots to self-optimize in a way that guarantees maximum acceleration at every moment, thereby minimizing cycle times.
