When done by hand, material removal can suffer from inconsistency, and pose an ergonomic risk to operators.  Buffing, grinding, polishing, deburring, de-flashing, sanding, and drilling can be efficiently performed by robots to ensure quality and improve health and safety. Here are a few of the process equipment options that Premier Automation uses in automated material removal solutions:

• Material infeed and outfeed units
• Belt sanding units
• Contact wheel units
• Compound feeders

Role of Automation

Robotic technologies have grown to a level at which providing vision sensors to robots and actuating exact force control is no longer impossible. Tool holders are available through which directions can be provided to loads, and a cleaner edge can be created. All things aside, superior repeatability is a reason enough to shift to robotic material removal as this feature alone can bring down running costs considerably.

As a whole, you’ll have the following to gain with automated material removal:

• Consistency: robots can be programmed to follow a path that results in greater consistency every time.
• Throughput: automating material removal would mean robots can carry out multiple tasks on a single subject simultaneously.
• Repeatability: robots have unparalleled repeatability compared to humans and are free of petty errors.
• Safety: not all material removal processes involve trimming, some are inherently dangerous such as cleaning on toxic liquids. These can be carried out much more safely by robots.