‘The advantage of using a Mitsubishi Electric product is its wide portfolio’--Madhusudhanan N S, Senior Manager – Robotics Business Development, Factory Automation & Industrial Division, Mitsubishi El
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
What are the Mitsubishi Electric drive solutions for the machine tool industry?
There are 6 major products – HMI, Motor Control, Robots, Servo, VFD and PLC – that cater to the global machine tool industry.
The HMI category is designed to optimise operator control and monitoring of device and line status. It includes GS21, GT21, GT14, GT23 and GT27 Series HMIs.
The Motor Control comprises MMP-T motor circuit breakers and MS-T contactors that comply with UL60947-4-1A plus type E/F. These help in reducing the number of applicable devices against NEC basic circuit configuration, and further enhance the value of SCCR.
In Robot category, Mitsubishi Electric offers two types of Robots: RV – Vertical Articulated and RH – Horizontal-SCARA robots and also the upside-down SCARA type. We handle all the precise applications using our robots mainly with our collision detection, force sensor and vision based artificial intelligence card known as ‘Smart plus card’.
The Servo section provides a variety of servo and motion system products that offer solutions for applications as simple as a single axis point-to-point system through to fully synchronised 96 axis systems. Servo includes JN Servo, MR-JE Servo, J4 Servo and J4TM Servo.
VFDs are a key component of Mitsubishi Electric’s factory automation systems. It includes VFD D700, VFD E700, VFD F800 and VFD A800. Under PLC, our offering spans from our Alpha Simple Application Controller with as little as six I/O points, all the way to the high-end Q Series Automation Platform capable of running entire plants with thousands of I/O. The product line includes FX Series PLC, iQ-F PLC, L Series PLC, iQ PLC and iQ-R PLC.
Are these standard products or also customised solutions available in this range?
These are standard products, where System Engineering plays a major role to build systems for respective applications. The advantage of using a Mitsubishi Electric product is its wide portfolio, which includes Robot, PLC, HMI, Servo, SCADA, MES, etc., for the machine tool industry. These products are designed to support all the major industries like automotive, pharma and F&B, among others.
What are the software tools offered to machine tool manufacturers at IMTEX 2019?
The RT Tool Box, which is 3D Robot simulation software, can be used for layout investigation and cycle time measuring. These two functions are vital for the CNC machine loading/unloading application. This would be a major support to the tool making industry for palletising and pick-and-place applications.
The Smart plus card enables to go for an extensive maintenance function with preventive and condition based with its artificial intelligence inbuilt in it.
What about the range of Mitsubishi Electric Cobots launched at IMTEX 2019 in terms of payloads?
As of now, we have planned to launch Cobots with payload of 5 kg capacity at IMTEX 2019, as it is suitable to almost all the handling applications, where Human Machine Interface can happen.
What are the applications – are these ready for integration in manufacturing cells?
Applications like automotive assembly and sealant application, screw driving and tightening and precise handling in the loading unloading for special purpose machines. The Mitsubishi Electric Cobots can be programmed by direct teaching from the arm itself. This helps them to learn how to move, as a human operator guides it through various positions. The LED light in the arm indicates the current status of the Cobot dynamically so that it would be very easy for the programmer to understand while overriding the robot.
Is Mitsubishi Electric working with OEMs for deploying these Cobots in their machines?
Yes, we have already updated our existing customers through various marketing activities. However, these robots would mostly be used in the inspection systems assembly, and for the machine loading/unloading, offering utmost ease in programming.
(These eInterviews were conducted on the eve of IMTEX2019 – the Indian Metal-Cutting Machine Tool Exhibition held recently at Bangalore, where Mitsubishi Electric was a participant.)