Robots build robots

Watching one of the world's most powerful robots, the KR 1000 titan - Kuka's largest robot - at work behind the safety fence may feel like being in Jurassic Park. Admittedly, the comparison is perhaps a little far-fetched, but if you look at its size, with a dead weight of 5 tons and a reach of up to 3.6 m, then Steven Spielberg's raptors might come to mind. As a heavy-duty robot, the giant moves the heaviest parts and components even over long distances. Despite its load capacity of 1,300 kg, the repeat accuracy of the KR titan is +/-0.1 mm.

A robot manufactures conspecifics

The KR titan six-axis robot is normally used for palletizing, packaging and welding work. At Kuka's Augsburg plant, however, the orange giant produces the basic structure of its somewhat smaller counterparts in a cell, including the KR Quantec K shelf-mounted robot and the KR Fortec heavy-duty robot. A whole series of handling and joining tasks have to be mastered. The colossus whizzes along a rail over a distance of several meters at a maximum speed of 1.45 m/s to feed itself with the individual workpieces. It also rotates around its own axis with its load.

In the so-called axis 1 assembly, the base frame is mounted on the carousel of the future robot. The carousel is responsible for the rotary movement of the robot (axis A1) and is connected to the base frame via a gearbox. The base frame forms the basis of the robot. It is where the interfaces between the robot mechanics and the robot controller are located. Once the base frame is connected to the carousel, the two joined parts are received by two employees. They receive the two parts from a type of rotary table, which automatically releases them after the last work step, fixed in changing devices. The turntable is a specially developed 3-axis positioner that can accommodate two 2 t payloads.
After the final bolting and a final inspection, the unfinished body of the future robot is transferred to the next work line.

From island to line production

Until 2013, the robots at the Augsburg plant were still manufactured in an island production line. While employees used to carry out all work steps manually on one type of robot, several robot types can now be manufactured at the same time in line production with the KR titan. As the workers no longer have to handle large weights, the number of sick days among employees is also reduced.
Another advantage: whereas employees used to be tied to one system per shift, work is now spread out thanks to automation. Before the changeover, set-up times were significantly longer and employees had to manually load parts weighing several hundred kilograms onto the work surface with the help of a crane and align them precisely. The risk of damaging the parts when loading or unloading with the crane has been eliminated and there is practically no more waste.

The KR titan now only needs a few minutes for all handling tasks. This has also increased productivity.