Robots have been slowly integrated into the manufacturing industry since “Bill” Griffith P. Taylor invented the first industrial robot in 1937. As the industry grew, so did the abilities of robots, which really took off in 1981 when the first robot with joint-mounted motors was created by Takeo Kanade. This later lead to the invention of intelligent robots in 1992 by FANUC (who is now a leading robot manufacturer). Nowadays, you could walk into any large manufacturing/industrial factory and be greeted by an army of robots whirring away, day and night.
There are several tasks that robots are able to perform, including painting, material handling, material removal, assembly, and even welding. These tasks are described as “repetitive applications”, as robots can be programmed to complete these kinds of tasks quickly and efficiently. So where a human would become fatigued after such repetitive work, the robot won’t falter in its workflow. Collaborative robots (also known as “cobots”) work together with humans to complete applications in a conducive manner by finishing monotonous tasks, allowing the human employees to focus on more intricate and precise jobs. This sounds perfect on paper, but robots still require a lot of training to operate.
After founding James Engineering in 1980, James Richards set out to create and manufacture his own robot. The company was working on the initial creation of their MAX System, an all-encompassing finishing machine, when Richards tried his hand at robot design, but he quickly came to realize just how limiting robots can be when it comes to efficient manufacturing.
“What I found is that robotic arms have a very limited workspace envelope,” says Richards. “For manufacturers, that dead space becomes an issue when workspace is premium.” Due to the typical internal setup of robot arms and their limited stroke, they are unable to reach the corners of their workspace, ultimately leaving behind a lot of precious unused space. “Another problem with them however is that eventually the arm is going to bend and lower when enough weight is added to it,” he continues, “It’s like if I took a broomstick and extended it off a table and put weight on the extended end—it’s going to bend and dip. It’s the same even with steel arms.” This bending then creates vibrations (also called chatter) that leave waves on machined surfaces. Chatter will greatly reduce both a product’s quality and productivity. The bending of robotic arms also decreases the robot’s efficiency over time and exterminates any precision it might have had previously. “[A robot] was initially designed to be a pick-and-place unit without much precision.”
Since James Engineering focuses on manufacturing and selling high end deburring and chamfering machines, the loss of precision would make our machines worthless, hence why Richards scrapped his designs for a “traditional” robot. He eventually built a different kind of robot known as a gantry, which is “a frame structure raised on side supports so as to span over or around something” (Merriam-Webster.com, Oct 2023). The gantries used in James Engineering’s machines use straddle mounts and feature a moving truck running between each end of the mount. Because support is coming from each side, any pesky bending motion is removed, resulting in a longer-lasting mechanism. The biggest advantage to using a gantry system is it can accomplish all the movement a robot is capable of (and more) using only 3 axes instead of a robot’s 4. “My machines will go back and forth for years without losing any accuracy because they’re supported from both ends,” Richards explains.
“With a robot, there’s also a limitation of stroke if a part is too big to put on a rotary table,” he continues. A design flaw commonly seen amongst robots is where the actual arm itself is placed—directly in the middle of the machine. This eats away even more precious space, but with the James Engineering overhead gantry system, the “arms” of the machine can be retracted above the workspace. Now, the gantry system is not necessarily something that is unique to James Engineering; lots of other companies utilize gantry systems and even make universal erector sets of them. “[These sets] are like building blocks,” Richards says, “Gantry systems are like modules. You can build one axis that goes back and forth and you can buy multiple of those. You do have to buy all of the components though to make them do what you want.”
But Richards didn’t build your average gantry system—he built one with the future in mind. Currently, the gantry system within the MAX is capable of deburring, chamfering, surfacing, washing, and brushing parts/gears. But the ultimate goal of the MAX is to make it capable of accomplishing 14 applications in total. “I designed the MAX to one day be able to paint parts, [use] sand blasting, [carry out] rudimentary machining, assemble, 3D print with both metal and plastic,” Richards reveals. “We could even make [some] machines capable of this now. But the MAX was built with look-ahead capability.”
James Engineering has used the gantry system for decades now, and it has yet to fail against a typical robot. Due to its unlimited movement and reinforced framework, Richards states that, “A robot has no advantage over us.” All the MAX Systems offered by James Engineering include the gantry system, further proving their overall precision and reliability.
“Everybody is trying to use robots in ways they weren’t designed for: polishing, machining, assembly, welding. Because of how these robot arms are built, they start to lose accuracy within 3 to 4 months,” Richards describes, “But for a CNC/deburring machine, we need accuracy twenty times better than what a robot can do at best.”
And that’s exactly what the gantry provides.
Interested in testing out the wicked capabilities of the James Engineering gantry system? Send any questions or inquiries to Sales@James-Engineering.com and we’ll get back to you ASAP.