KUKA Robotics Corporation Celebrates 35 Years of Working Ideas

June 5 Technology Open House showcases world's first industrial robot with a 1000 kg payload and 4000 mm reach

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich.,-- KUKA Robotics Corporation is celebrating its 35th year in the robotics industry by inviting customers to its corporate headquarters in Clinton Township, Mich. for the "35 Years of Working Ideas" Technology Open House. KUKA Robotics will showcase more than 15 operating robotic demonstration cells for a variety of applications. The event also features several private product introductions to North American customers including its KUKA KR 1000 Titan and DeltaSpot, the next generation of spot welding, being introduced by KUKA Robotics' partner Fronius USA LLC.

"KUKA Robotics is proud to celebrate 35 years of working ideas to help our customer solve problems and improve their manufacturing processes," said Stu Shepherd, president, KUKA Robotics Corporation. "We're opening our doors to help customers see our technological innovations and learn more about KUKA Robotics capabilities."

  What:       KUKA Robotics - 35 Years of Working Ideas Open House

  Who:        Companies looking to automate manufacturing processes

  Date:       Thursday, June 5, 2008

  Time:       9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

  Register:   Send an email to kukainfo@kukarobotics.com to register.

  TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATIONS

KUKA Robotics will be showcasing a variety of demonstrations. Highlights are listed following.

Material Handling -

The KUKA KR 1000 Titan is the company's latest product and with its heavyweight capabilities has earned an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. The KR 1000 Titan is the world's first industrial robot that can lift a payload of 1000 kilograms with a reach of 4000 mm and will be handling a Chrysler Jeep body. The Titan is ideally suited to handle heavy, large or bulky workpieces. The heavyweight champion was developed for sectors such as the building materials, automotive and foundry industries.

DeltaSpot, the next generation for spot welding -

Fronius USA LLC's DeltaSpot demonstration showcases a new spot welding process that helps to improve the limitations of conventional resistance spot-welding and provides a process for spot welding steel and coated steel, both high and super-high-strength; aluminum, chrome-nickel, titanium, magnesium, bimetal joins and steel/aluminum joins. The characteristic feature of DeltaSpot is its innovative robot pincer gun with spooling process tapes. The continuous onward motion of the process tape makes possible endless spot-welding in consistently high quality, for several shifts at a time. The result is unprecedented precision in the welding process, exact quality control and exceptionally long electrode life.

KUKA Protection Plus IP 67 cell for foundry applications -

KUKA Robotics will demonstrate its Ingress Protection (IP) 67 rating for its foundry robots. Attendees can spray water within this robotic cell and the robot will continue to run since the seals of the robot won't allow water to penetrate the joints.

High Speed Palletizing and Packaging -

Several high speed packaging and palletizing demonstrations will feature the KR 40 PA and the KR 180-2 PA, including KUKA's Standard Low Cost Palletizing Cell which is designed to replace manual palletizing stations.

Dual robot injection mold machine extraction cells -

KUKA Robotics will also showcase its KR 60 KS Shelf Mount Robot Series that allows for top access to injection mold, die cast & machine tools, along with its KR 60 L30 Jet from its Overhead Mount Robot Series.

Assembly and material handling operations -

The KUKA Robotics KR 5 Sixx is a compact high speed robot series for assembly & material handling applications and will be showcased in a demonstration cell that includes vision. The robot will pick up a CD-ROM, present it to a camera and then adjust the location of the CD-ROM before it is presented to a pen to write information on the label.

Robotic Machining Solution -

The KUKA Robotics KR 100 HA (High Accuracy robot series), paired with the KUKA.CAMROB Software, is designed for high precision applications including milling, trimming, routering, de-burring, dispensing, striping, gauging and laser processing. The KUKA.CAMROB Software automatically generates robot programs from CNC data for a variety of applications including pattern making, stoneworking, woodworking, metalworking and plastics. It also features milling application modules which are used to integrate milling tools.

Testing and software features -

Attendees will also tour the KUKA Robotics' Accuracy & Sound Calibration Room which incorporates Krypton K-600 Optical CMM, an Absolute Accuracy Testing Lab and Sound Level Validation Testing Lab. KUKA.SafeHandling will be demonstrated to show an example of collaborative operation that permits direct operator / robot interaction in automatic mode with servos active. The demonstration uses KUKA Guiding Device (KGD) and is compliant with ANSI/ISO 10218-1.

The RoboTeam cooperating robot technology demonstration showcases KUKA Robotics' ability to share the load among robots for heavy or large parts. Process Relative Motion allows one robot to track the motion of another while performing process work. The flexible programming allows the main logic to remain on one controller while other controllers simply provide services.

KUKA Robotics Corporation

KUKA Robotics Corporation, with its parent company KUKA Roboter GmbH, Augsburg, Germany, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of industrial robots, with an installed base of over 75,000 units. The company's robots range from 5kg to 1000kg payloads, and 635mm to 4000mm reach, all controlled from a common PC based controller platform. KUKA robots are utilized in a diverse range of industries including the appliance, automotive, aerospace, consumer goods, logistics, food, pharmaceutical, medical, foundry and plastics industries and in multiple applications including material handling, machine loading, assembly, packaging, palletizing, welding, bending, joining, and surface finishing. For more information contact KUKA Robotics at 866-873-5852 or visit their website at KUKAR ROBOTICS.