Manufacturing is a field that is always looking for ways to increase productivity, efficiency, and safety all the while reducing cost and errors. These tendencies for growth make the field of manufacturing ripe for disruption by the robotics industry.
Robots can often handle tasks much more efficiently than human workers and, at this time, also don’t suffer any emotional turmoil if needed to work long hours. Robots can help in the manufacturing process from sewing clothes to building clothes to creating circuit boards.
Check out the top ten robotics companies in the manufacturing industry!
Rethink Robotics
Rethink Robotics is optimizing workforce productivity by introducing Baxter and Sawyer, two trainable robots that can take part in manufacturing operations, component manufacturing, cargo transfers, and much more. Baxter and Sawyer operate in a human-friendly way, and in a constrained area of operation to minimize risk to other workers or their environment.
Rethink Robotics is working to enable a transition from highly repetitious work to highly skilled work by making robots to fill the needed slots.
Sewbo
Sewbo is robotic manufacturing for garments. Their robots can professionally sew garments for the fashion industry via automation, reducing costs and decreasing times in the production of clothes.
They do it by stiffening the clothes so that they sewing process works similar to sheet metal. However, the stiffener washes out in hot water at the end of the manufacturing process.
Local Motors
Local Motors is using 3D printing and robotics to redefine manufacturing. Local Motors is leading the shift from larger factories to smaller, more numerous “microfactories” to help reduce their environmental footprint while retaining high production values.
Local Motors can use their microfactories to program and 3D print things between the size of a chair and a car chassis and operate them on a global scale.
Grabit
Grabit uses a combination of factors including machine vision and electroadhesion to improve the overall efficiency of industries such as automotive and aerospace manufacturing, and supply chain management. Grabit robotic systems can manage packages up to 50lb on rollers at a 45-degree angle, or picking up a 20lb box of books without dropping or damaging them.
Rise Robotics
Rise Robotics has pioneered the use of a beltscrew drive to power their industrial compressor, the Bacon™ LongBore™. Rise Robotics developed this system in their progression toward economically feasible and efficient exosuit power systems.
Rise Robotics has reduced both maintenance and power consumption costs alike with their Bacon™ LongBore™ compressor, which operates near silently and can be run from a 2kW inverter or generator without exerting excess stress on any of the machinery involved. The compressor can feed to demand of high-flow tools like impact and spray guns.
New Valence Robotics Corporation (NVBots)
NVBots has developed a 3D printer that can print parts composed of multiple metals all-in-one run and considerably faster than many other existing printers. NVBots also has a 24/7 operational, multi-user 3D plastics printer with automated part ejection and manageable build queues to help increase the effectiveness of collaboration with resources.
The NVPro can print parts that are ordered from virtually any device and managers can control the build queues to prioritize the most important parts as needed.
Mujin
Mujin is a majoritively hardware-agnostic robotics programmable logic controller (PLC) that can optimize robotic actions on or offline. The Mujin Controller combines machine vision with real-time monitoring to enable robots to perform complex tasks based on specific constraints or rules.
Mujin has developed a customized library for teaching robots how to interact with their environment without hitting other parts of the workspace. The Mujin Controller SIM replaces the need for traditional human teaching and reduces implementation costs for robotic systems.
Carbon
Carbon is enabling manufacturers to create a more efficient production floor by making 3D printers that can carry out complex workflows when combined with certain accessories. Carbon offers their customers the M-Series printers.
Accessories connect via the Carbon Connect expansion port to allow part washers and other pieces of equipment to further automate the production process. The M2 printer has twice the build volume of its predecessor and the same 75µm layer resolution. Carbon printers use their CLIP manufacturing method, so parts look and act more like they were injection molded.
Magazino
Magazino has engineered a line of precision robots for part-picking in warehouses, e-commerce, and other, similar environments. The Magazino TORU can not only handle entire pallets, but also single objects. TORU can run any time of day or night, and can be adapted to different types of products based on the type of grip required.
The TORU Cube can operate for up to 16 hours at a time, store 20 items internally, and scan barcodes to identify items. The TORU Cube does have picking weight limitations in the form of a 3kg maximum weight per item.
Tempo Automation
Tempo Automation provides rapid, custom circuit board prototyping. Custom boards can be ordered and printed within 72 hours, then shipped out to the user. To get a quote per board, interested parties must submit a board print to let Tempo Automation determine the resources required, as they source, print, and ship all of the boards they make.
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