Case studies: Productive Robotics names numerous solutions

One thing in advance for companies that do not yet have any experience with lightweight robots: What is presented here can also be done by local robot suppliers. But Productive Robotics (USA) presents its services in a particularly transparent manner, as it only has one page.

I have been watching the American cobot manufacturer Productive Robotics for years. The reason is its certain establishment thanks to its focus on medium-sized businesses and the patriotism that goes with it in the USA (photos of cobots with the US flag are published for the 4th of July) and also its seventh axis. The American market, by the way, is presumably characterized by extreme wage differentials. This is true not only for top positions to unskilled workers, but also for employees in region A to employees with the same job in region B. These differences are smaller in Germany, but already have the effect here that the robot price in southern Germany is by far not as important as in other regions of Germany.

On balance, it can be stated that solutions are already in place for a significant proportion of operational activities.

Establishment in the USA

In the wake of IMTS 2022, the world's largest automation trade fair beyond China, Matt Malloy published the following overview on LinkedIn. It confirms the usual dominance of the two market leaders FANUC (market leadership in industrial robots is also to be achieved in cobots) and Universal Robots (cobots). They were seen most frequently - both in terms of the number of robots on their own stands and on partner stands. However, Productive Robotics was already in third place.

I don't know any market figures, but I can imagine that Productive Robotics sells about as many cobots in total as Kassow Robots worldwide due to its good positioning in the USA. Nevertheless, their own YouTube channel has less than 400 subscribers. This, by the way, is an indication that the acquired medium-sized company is quickly going back to its daily business and will not become a big fan of the cobot manufacturer and follow it intensively.

Complete solutions for applications

In the follow-up to the IMTS trade show, Productive Robotics lists its complete solutions shown(link). These show that the automation path in the USA and here is very similar and that the fields of application are the same in both countries. Unlike the manufacturers here, Productive Robotics not only has its own optics (vision), but also its own end effector and apparently its own welding table.

Novel welding system?

On this website, it is billed as the "industry's first production welding system powered by Augmented Intelligent Vision, Vison-enabled , teach-by-touch cobots." It includes two separate stations so the cobot can weld while the worker can set up safely. As mentioned earlier, similar solutions are also available for purchase in Germany.

CNC machine tending

Machine loading automated by means of a cobot is also very popular with us It certainly benefits from the fact that its customers are particularly tech-savvy. Anyone who regularly buys expensive machining centers has to be. The hourly rate of 5 US-$ mentioned by Productive Robotics is interesting(link). Even if this were to apply to 3-shift operation, what would be a cost of $15 in single-shift operation? I.e. even in difficult times with low capacity utilization, a cobot pays for itself - this statement can also be applied to domestic solutions. What can such solutions do in general?

• Open and close machine door
• Pick up blanks and insert them into the machine
• Pressing the cycle button
• Removal of the finished parts
• other processes are possible (e.g. deburring).

Gluing and dosing

A major plus point of the cobots is their accuracy in gluing and sealing and thus sustainability (fewer rejects). At the same time, they are more flexible than some might initially think. For domestic solutions, cf. link.

Parts marking

In series production, part marking may be required. Here, a cobot can either feed the workpiece or guide a corresponding part marking attachment. The video shows an American part marker on a Danish cobot:

Packing

One of the most unergnomistic tasks can be packing. This monotonously repetitive activity really calls for a cobot. Productive Robottics uses suction pads from Germany (Schmalz) for this. Related to this is the topic of palletizing, i.e. stacking one on top of the other. Both applications are easy to program, even for non-professionals, as programming is increasingly intuitive.

Inspection

While the cobot takes on less qualified tasks during packing and palletizing, material inspection is already more responsible. The range of software and cameras in this segment is large, so that solutions are easy to implement. If necessary, own 'parts can be learned in with manageable effort. Flexibility is therefore guaranteed.

After this abbreviated trade show overview, here's the video to go with it:

Despite all the globalization, Producitive Robot Robotics shows that young companies in particular are initially occupied for years with developing the domestic market. On this market, they encounter already globalized competitors (Universal Robots), but also purely domestic niche providers such as RoboJob-USA:

Are we networking? LinkedIn
-> To the Cobot group on LinkedIn (Link)

In my own account/advertisement
The author of this blog is significantly involved in the AI/robotics project Opdra. He advises SMEs around robotics - up to 50% funding for consulting is possible. Permanently looking for interesting solutions, he has seen hundreds of applications. For this reason, his customers also include large companies that have know-how but do not know the entire market. You can find more about him here.