RobotWare Machining FC

At the heart of RobotWare Machining FC are two advanced software features. The first, FC Pressure, lets robots grind, polish or buff castings while maintaining a constant pressure between the tool and the work piece. The second software feature, FC SpeedChange, enables a robot to deburr or deflash partline and surfaces of castings at a controlled speed, slowing down when encountering excessive burr.

Position control, the conventional approach used to clean castings, involves complex and time-consuming programming as the robot path needs to be as exact as possible. The expectation is that the grinding or polishing will then give consistent results. But in reality castings are all individual, with different tolerances, and this generates inconsistent process results.

ABB has developed RobotWare Machining FC to overcome this problem. It offers a number of benefits:

• Improved process results/product quality
• Reduced programming time
• Shorter cycle time
• Longer tool life