ROBOTS IN THE BODYSHOP INTELLIGENT CONCEPTS FOR COST SAVING

摘要

FANUC Robotics' bodyshop customers continue to present us with this basic challenge: "Reduce the 'lifetime cost' of Robots in the Bodyshop" The lifetime cost is defined quite simply as the sum of: Purchase Cost, Installation & Start-up Costs, and Maintenance Costs. There are two parts to FANUC Robotics' response to this challenge. The commercial response is to offer customers basic spot-welding "economy packages" by sourcing best value components and providing standard "off the shelf" configurations. The technological response is more complex: -Reduce purchase cost by replacing "hardware functions" with "software functions", for example: software equalisation and low-cost recalibration for servo-guns. Reduce installation costs by reducing start-up time by automating start-up with functions such as VISION SHIFT, which allow programs taught off-line to be transferred to the real installation. Reduce maintenance cost by integrating process media into robot mechanical units such as the R-2000iA/165EW & /200EW cable integrated arm robots.