Millions of industrial robots perform a large part of the automated handling of components or the feeding of production systems. Nevertheless, this technology has so far been limited mainly to handling, although the flexibility and cost-effective kinematic structures offer great potential. However, movement patterns that are absolutely true to the path, which are necessary for machining processes, cannot be executed with conventional industrial robots. However, a small team of robotics experts in the Lake Constance region has succeeded in making robots usable for such complex processes - by means of optimized kinematics and digital transformation. In collaboration with Siemens, Comau and Maucher Formenbau, they devised and developed the first processing robots equipped with eight interpolating axes, eliminating the need for time-consuming teaching. Just one year later, CNC robot-based processing machines ready for series production were created, which carry out highly demanding work at the partner company's headquarters in Meckenbeuren and process components for car manufacturers quickly and with high precision. By using the new CNC-R processing machines, the production volume could be significantly increased and personnel could be diverted to other tasks. The newly founded company Maucher-CNC-Robotic is now developing turnkey robotic processing machines for a wide range of processes, such as water jet cutting, welding and tacking.

"We have been working with various industrial robots for a long time and recognized very early on that this technology must be made widely accessible to the market due to its extreme reliability," says Peter Strittmatter, Managing Director of Maucher Formenbau. "We worked with a neighboring robotics company to develop initial concepts on how the robots could make the leap from handling to machining." Using a newly configured control concept, they were to perform complex movements, even with difficult edges, on a precise path instead of from point to point, and take over processing tasks directly and fully automatically. The close cooperation with today's BBS Beteiligungs GmbH led to the founding of Maucher CNC-Robotic. "When we set about solving the task in 2018 using digital transformation, we had no idea that just one year later, production-ready CNC robot processing machines would be carrying out demanding work at Maucher," says Dirk Brissé, Managing Director of CNC-Robotic Maucher and BBS.

One of the main aims of the further development was to make the technology interesting and affordable for smaller companies too. To achieve this, the robot kinematics had to be extended with additional axes and the overall system had to be simplified in terms of operation so that teaching processes could be eliminated. The system also had to be designed to save space to allow flexible production options, even in small production halls. "To ensure all of this, we initially purchased our robots and additional axes without a controller. This allows us to integrate the machine controller into these bare 8-axis kinematics," explains Brissé. "This makes it possible to interpolate the robot's kinematics with two additional axes to achieve absolute precision and path-following movements."

The machines are programmed using the commonly used G-code. The developers at Maucher use specially developed post-processors to connect to the CAM environment of various manufacturers. This ensures the compatibility of the new kinematics concept and machining processes can be implemented in a radius of up to 3.1 m. "The digital development and programming of the components takes place in parallel to the actual machining in the CAM system," explains Brissé. "This means that rapid component changes up to batch size 1 can be implemented easily and cost-effectively." Thanks to this flexible programming, downtimes can be reduced to a minimum.