Application of Truss-Type Robotic Arms in Automated Production Lines

Robotic arms were the initial industrial robots and also the first modern robots to be introduced. Currently, in China, robotic arms are mainly used in areas such as machine tool processing, casting, forging, and heat treatment. However, their quantity, variety, and performance cannot meet the needs of industrial production development. According to the Chinese Robot Industry Alliance, China’s industrial robot sales reached 36,560 units, a year-on-year increase of 60%, surpassing Japan and becoming the world’s robot leader.

Robotic arms have many advantages. For example, automatic loading and unloading have replaced manual operation, which can effectively control the pace of production and avoid the impact on production due to human factors, greatly improving production efficiency. By modifying programs and grippers, production processes can be quickly changed, and fast debugging saves time spent on training employees, enabling rapid production. The automated production line of robots completes the entire process from feeding, clamping, to unloading, reducing intermediate links, greatly improving the quality of parts, especially the surface of the workpiece, which is more beautiful. Taking the removal process of injection-molded parts as an example, the robotic arm can imitate some of the functions of human arms to automatically grab, move objects, or operate tools according to fixed procedures. The use of robotic arms can reduce labor and improve labor productivity and workshop automation.

Now let me introduce gantry robotic arms:

Gantry robotic arms are also called rectangular coordinate robots or gantry-type robots. Gantry robotic arms work closely with CNC machine tools to form an unmanned loading and unloading machine processing system, which can greatly improve work efficiency and reduce labor costs. It is widely used in the automation of loading and unloading in CNC lathes, machining centers, grinders, gear shapers, cleaning machines, and other equipment. It is built from multi-dimensional linear guides. The linear guide is composed of precision aluminum profiles, toothed belts, linear sliding guides, or gear racks. The cross-sectional shape of the precision aluminum profile, which serves as a moving framework and carrier, is optimized by finite element analysis to ensure its strength and straightness. Bearing light bars and linear sliding guides are used as motion guides. The motion transmission mechanism adopts toothed belts, gear racks, or ball screws. After years of practical experience and continuous improvement in various industries, all kinds of guides have reached world-class standards in reliability, noise reduction, load-bearing capacity, maintenance-free, and overall performance.

Gantry robotic arms are industrial applications that can achieve automatic control, repeatable programming, multi-functionality, multi-degree of freedom, and a space right-angle relationship between motion degrees of freedom. They can handle objects and operate tools to complete various tasks. Common ones include machine tool loading and unloading robots, palletizing robots, glue (pointing) robots, inspection robots, polishing robots, assembly robots, medical robots, etc. High-quality gantry robotic arms should focus on the development of casting and heat treatment robots to reduce labor intensity, improve working conditions, and develop general-purpose robots while applying special-purpose robots. If conditions permit, teaching-type robots, computer-controlled robots, and combination robots should also be developed.

The rise in raw material costs, the increase in labor costs, and the decrease in product market unit prices have resulted in thinner profits for enterprises. In this increasingly competitive society, enterprises must innovate and transform, use advanced technology, optimize production processes, and continuously improve product quality to gain a competitive advantage.