"In the coming years, the proportion of HRC-capable machines and systems will increase rapidly," emphasized Henrik A. Schunk on the occasion of the tenth Schunk Expert Days on Service Robotics. "Teamwork with robots will soon be as natural and intuitive as driving a car or working with a computer," said the initiator and organizer of the symposium for applied service robotics. At Schunk, things are moving at a rapid pace when it comes to collaboration: following an initial pilot application in its own gripper assembly, the family-owned company is now using a demonstration system from its subsidiary Schunk Electronic Solutions to show how depaneling systems for the electronics industry can be made collaborative and the benefits associated with this.

Depaneling machine with robot arm
The system consists of the SAR 1700 depaneling machine and a six-axis UR5 robot arm from Universal Robots, which is equipped with a Co-act-EGP-C gripper from Schunk. Whereas employees previously had to load stand-alone machines such as the SAR 1700 with the electrical assemblies individually by hand, it is now sufficient to manually refill the depaneling magazine for the robot.

Everything else is done by the machine: the robot reaches into the magazine, removes a panel, places it in the machine, closes the door and presses the start button. As soon as the milling machine has separated the PCBs, the robot arm places the parts on a conveyor belt and the process starts again. The magazine has space for up to 32 panels. If required, the employee can take over at any time and load the machine manually.

The Co-act-EGP gripper is the world's first industrial gripper to be certified and approved for collaborative operation by the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV). (Image: Schunk)

"The collaborative concept significantly increases efficiency in electronics production," explains Henrik A. Schunk. "Instead of one or two machines, operators can now operate up to five depaneling machines at the same time, for example. This means the solution pays for itself within a very short time."

As the SAR 1700 is specially designed for smaller companies and the investment is comparatively low, electronics production can be successively expanded with additional machines. Each one can be flexibly equipped manually or automatically to suit individual requirements.

DGUV-certified gripper fits all cobots
The Co-act-EGP-C gripper used in the application is the world's first inherently safe industrial gripper to be certified and approved for collaborative operation by the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV). The two-finger parallel gripper, which is controlled via digital I/O, covers a wide range of applications - from small parts assembly in the electronics and consumer goods industries to assembly applications in the automotive sector. It meets the requirements of ISO/TS 15066 and is designed so that people cannot be injured. This includes a protective cover as well as a safe current limiter. To make collaboration with the operator as fluid and intuitive as possible, the 24 V gripper is equipped with LED lighting in traffic light colors. The user can use these to signal the current status of the module.

It is supplied as a completely pre-assembled unit with a suitable interface for cobots from Kuka, Fanuc or Universal Robots. Interfaces for robots from other manufacturers are also available on request. The complete control and power electronics are installed inside the gripper so that it does not take up any space in the control cabinet. To further minimize the commissioning effort, Schunk is planning programming modules for all common cobots. as