EASYCNC BLOGS

It’s no secret that COVID had a significant impact in the aerospace and aviation industry. The industry itself has seen a lot of fluctuation keeping manufacturers on their toes trying to keep up and plan for demand changes. As these demands increase for the aerospace manufacturing industry, the need to scale is ever prevalent. That is where aerospace robots come in to help manufacturers keep up with the demand.

In 2022 the aerospace industry was seeing a significant boom in A&D (Aerospace & Defense) demand. According to an article by FitchRatings.com, large commercial aircraft deliveries will increase in 2023 by more than 20% versus 2022.  This same outlook report also sees suppliers to OEMs benefiting from these numbers as aftermarket sales and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) servicing will also see an increase in demand.

Jump forward to 2023. The buzz within the industry is that Boeing plans to increase production of their 737 Max aircraft. A recap of a press release by Reuters.com states that Boeing has plans to increase their monthly MAX production to 50 planes per month by 2026 while also ramping up their 787 production to 10 planes per month. Stan Deal CEO of Boeing is stated as saying that supply chain issues are “getting better” but are still working through training of employees brought on to handle the influx of post-pandemic orders.

But what does this mean for aerospace & defense manufacturing companies?
With the product demand growing, airplane manufacturers are struggling to stay on top of supply chain issues. That means they need their parts in house and ready for assembly. That is where vendors of aerospace and defense companies will see an influx in ordering. Along with production increases, all planes must go through FAA certification.

Stan Deal is also quoted as saying:

“The company is also making progress with the new 737 MAX 7 model and is in the process of completing final submiss

It’s no secret, airplanes are no small assembly project. These massive modes of transportation have an important job and carry the world’s most precious cargo, us. Most would be shocked to learn how much modern day plane builders rely on robots to ensure the public’s safety when in the air. Aerospace manufacturing robots do a variety of tasks that not only cover the building of the plane but also include several other applications such as cleaning, sanding and yes, even inspecting the plane.

Here are some ways we at EASYCNC support the Aerospace Manufacturing Industry:
Welding Robots
Machine Tending
Robotic Drilling
Inspection Robots
Aircraft Washing Systems
Let’s break these down a little bit…

Robotic Welders or Welding Robots
With the sheer size of aircrafts being what they are, it makes sense why robotic welders are seen so much in the aerospace industry. In order to meet any kind of a production quota, airplane manufacturers need to be welding several different parts of the plane at one time. While this poses a serious safety risk with human welders, robotic welders can run next to each other simultaneously with no issues.

The other factor to this equation is the unique materials with which aerospace vehicles are made of. Being able to weld nickel-alloy and titanium material requires quite a bit of advanced skill that the average human welder does not possess. These robotic welders can not only perform these welds but can do so with near 100% precision making them the obvious choice.

Robotic Drilling or Drilling Robots
Did you know a Boeing 777 has over 60,000 rivets? To implement these rivets manufacturers depend on drilling robots to get the job done. Not only does the idea of riveting 60,000 holes sound utterly exhausting, it also takes a human four steps to complete each rivet. This includes drilling the initial hole, additional drilling to the exact specified diameter, reaming the hole, and finally the rivet

The pharmaceutical industry is extremely competitive. It can be hard at times to keep up with your competition. EASYCNC’s robotic solutions can help speed up your production processes, improve consistency, and scale your business toward record breaking numbers.

EASYCNC Delivers Machine Uptime For the Pharmaceutical Industry

How Industrial Robots Support the Pharmaceutical Industry
Increased productivity
Better consistency
Reduction in downtime
Increased flexibility
Pick and Place Robots
Pick and place robots are seen more and more frequently in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Within these factories you can find everything from a LR Mate 200iD Series Robot to a Fanuc Cobot CRX-10iA Series. These robots are often used for picking up an item from a conveyor belt and moving it to a work area this is where the pick-and-place robot gets it’s name. Another popular task for these pick-and-place robots and cobots is sorting. More specifically the sorting and arranging of syringes and medicine bottles.

Inspection Robots
Advancements in robotic vision have seen an increase in the use of inspection robots in manufacturing. BusinessWire has recently predicted that Global Inspection Robots Market Size will increase 29% by 2028 as a result of this growth. Pharmaceutical Manufacturers rely on the dependability of these inspection robots to detect defects. Being able to consistently spot defects is vital in the pharma industry as any slight mistake could prove to be fatal for the end user. Some primary tasks these inspection robots perform are:

Inspection of the primary packaging – detection of prefilled syringes, inspection of the cap or tip and seals, and inspection of the exterior packaging for quality.
Product Inspection – leak testing and fill level verification of the interior product to confirm quality and volume of the product meets standards.
Secondary Packaging – Inspection of the label, vial counting, and serialization for US re

What is a cobot?
Simply put, cobots or collaborative robots are robots that are designed to work with humans. Cobots are unique in that they are able to learn multiple tasks to assist their human counterparts where the traditional robot is built and programmed to be not only stationary but also autonomous. These lower power robots are able to learn the majority of their tasks through demonstration and reinforcement learning thanks to multiple advances in robotic automation. The benefit of these lower powered robots is the increase in safety features that comes with collaborative robots. Cobots are the ideal solution for most small to mid-sized businesses looking to automate some of their production as they take up considerably less space but can also work in a variety of different capacities, they also help decrease workplace accidents as the robots are designed to be safe to be in close proximity with humans. They are essentially an extension of the employee giving them an extra set of arms to be able to complete the task.

Upgraded for safety
Cobots are different than your traditional robot due to the core standard ISO/TS 15066. Cobots have a variety of features that contribute to them being safe to work in tandem with humans.

Some of these features include:

Power, force, and torque limits — Simply put, these cobots are limited by power. They are able to apply a certain amount of force but should it for any reason exceed the limit the cobot is built to immediately stop.
Speed limits — The speed limit is important as humans work side by side with these cobots. By limiting the speed, the cobot cannot move fast enough that an collision with a human going full speed can cause harm. This means even though they are capable of moving fast, most cobots are designed to move slowly.
Safety-rated stop modes — Cobots have several triggers that may induce a stop mode to be employed. An “emergency stop” will only happen during an emergency

Automating various tasks within a production line, material handling robots offer a solution to streamline operations, eliminate monotony, and enhance safety. Incorporating material handling robots into your production process can significantly boost efficiency and customer satisfaction, ensuring the timely delivery of quality products.

Material handling encompasses a broad spectrum of activities on the shop floor, including part selection and transfer, palletizing, packing, and machine loading. These applications are all considered integral components of material handling.

When selecting suitable material handling equipment for your facility, several factors come into play. Considerations such as payload and speed requirements, the necessity of end-of-arm tooling or grippers, facility layout and floor space, the nature of the materials to be handled, and potential production challenges all play crucial roles.

EASYCNC specializes in both new and used material handling robots from reputable manufacturers. With an extensive inventory of robot handling systems, we are equipped to guide you in selecting and customizing the ideal solution for your needs. Our offerings encompass new and refurbished material handling robots from renowned brands including Fanuc, Yaskawa Motoman, ABB, and KUKA, all available at competitive prices. We take pride in delivering comprehensive customer service, engineering expertise, and training. Our reconditioned robots have undergone meticulous refurbishment processes to restore them to their optimal conditions.

For those seeking robotic material handling workcells, RobotWorx provides a commitment to collaborating with each customer to create tailored new or used robot handling systems that align with their specific requirements.

Applications of Material Handling Robots:
Assembly Robots: Assembly robots play a pivotal role in lean industrial processes, expanding production capabilities across the manufacturing

Robots and computer numerically controlled tools typically rely on multiple printed circuit boards to manage the whole machine, run subsystems and communicate with external devices. A Fanuc CNC machine relies on a variety of printed circuit boards to turn the code for an operation into actual work. Controllers, displays, servos, spindles, and operator control panels have boards that contribute to making them mill, cut, or turn as required. Yet these key electronic components might not be as well understood as they might be. Those PCBs are robust but not immune to wear and damage. So, it helps to know how your operating environment can affect their performance, what impending failure looks like, and how to get the temporarily disabled machine running again.

The 411 on Printed Circuit Boards in Fanuc CNC Machines
Unsurprisingly, if you open up various CNC machines you will find a wide variety of sizes and configurations in use. Those circuit boards transmit information to and from each subsystem in a Fanuc CNC lathe, for example. 

These PCBS are fairly durable, lasting 15 to 20 years in use, and far longer when stored correctly. But these circuit boards can also fail prematurely due to the environment they operate in. Manufacturing errors can also create defects that cause a PCB to fail in use.

How Fanuc PCBs Go Bad
Aside from a hidden defect making a board fail, several things can go wrong with a PCB in your Fanuc CNC machine. The most obvious thing that could lead to failure is old age. A board that’s been used in a manufacturing environment for the past 14 or 15 years is realistically at or near the end of its life. Contacts, chips, and diodes inevitably begin to fail over time. Aside from aging, a PCB could go bad for several reasons:

Exposure to moisture
Dust accumulation
Excessive vibration
Impacts or physical shocks
Exposure to high temperature
Power surges
The circuit boards in a CNC machine are not f