Events and trade fair make the summer automation season special
There are many new developments on the automation front that have enlivened the beginning of summer 2023, including trade fair events and celebrations of decades-long corporate journeys, as in the case of Renishaw, which has celebrated its 50 years in an event dedicated to customers and the press.
Talking of events, we will continue by “recounting” the 2023 edition of SPS (concluded on 25 May), which saw a rich array of automation proposals, appreciated by the over 39,000 visitors that crowded into the pavilions.
Walking through the stands, the editorial staff of ItaliaImballaggio met a number of important national and international operators that presented their best solutions, including robotics, ready industry 4.0 systems, components and sensors. We managed to talk with some of them in the June and July/August editions (B&R, Bosch Rexroth, Beckhoff, wittenstein, Emerson, Pilz) and in this issue of the magazine we give the floor to Image S, Mondial, Wenglor, Robox and igus. Let’s see how it went, in the voices of the protagonists.
The Robox AGV is a success
Robox has been operating on the market with industrial electronics products since 1975. The most recent evolution sees the Norwegian company committed to the development of an AGV with sturdiness and reliability characteristics that make the project unique of its kind. Marco Bassignana, electronic engineer, told us about it.
«The AGV with a control system is composed of a gyroscope and magnetic antenna that guide its movements, following a self-locating path based on floor magnets. The Wi-Fi connection makes it possible to control the device within the perimeter of the factory through the AGV manager installed on a PC. Among the advantages of the Robox solution there’s the level of robustness compared to more sophisticated models based on laser and vision systems, difficult to keep efficient when, once leaving the test centre, they enter a dirty factory, with materials sometimes in disorder and placed in unexpected positions: contexts that need a robust AGV like ours, which has been recognized by the market with as many as 170 installations in the Chinese market in the last two years. It is an aid to the human operator for activities in toxic, polluted and hazardous environments.
We can refer to steel mills or plastic foundries, but also hospital contexts where constant sanitization is needed. Among recent applications there’s the transportation of blood in hospitals, where the entrance and exit to and from a cold cell and an operating theatre does not require the same clothing and sanitisation procedures that would be imposed in a human operator, thereby accelerating the processes and reducing the risks.»
