Robotics World articles from January 2000

Robotics World archives from January 2000

Time Has Come for National Robotics Initiative.
January 1, 2000... Robotics is a technology driven by applications. Applications are driven by customer needs. Once the industry pioneers proved that computers could accurately drive servo actuators controlling the movement of a mechanism with multiple...

Congressional Letter.
January 1, 2000... (Editor's note: The following letter was sent to the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Energy, the director of the National Science Foundation, the Secretary of Commerce and the NASA administrator by Sens. Pete Dominici, Jeff Bingaman and...

Nine-Month Orders Top Record Full-Year Marks.
January 1, 2000... The North American robotics industry is enjoying its best year ever, according to new statistics released by Robotic Industries Association. Through September, a total of 13,368 robots valued at $1.11 billion had been ordered, smashing...

Robot Safety Events Planned for 2000.
January 1, 2000... RIA will continue its focus on robot safety in 2000 with two events being planned. April 10- 14, RIA will hold a Regional Robot Safety Workshop in Toronto alongside Canada's largest health and safety conference and trade show, Health & Safety...

RIA Launching Online Resource for Robotics Information.
January 1, 2000... RIA plans to launch an online robotics resource website, Robotics Online, in the first quarter of 2000. The site will include feature articles, robotics news, technical papers and information on applications where users can browse articles,...

Robotics Industry Forum Showcases Emerging Markets.
January 1, 2000... Nearly 170 robotics industry leaders heard speakers discuss a variety of robotic applications in both emerging and established markets at the Robotics Industry Forum last November in Orlando, Fla. Attendees heard from speakers using robots...

RIA Elects New Directors and Officers.
January 1, 2000... The Robotic Industries Association has elected Kevin Ostby as its new president. Ostby is vice president, general industries, of FANUC Robotics North America Inc. He succeeds Charlie Duncheon of Adept Technology. "The robotics industry is...

AIA to Launch Machine Vision Online.
January 1, 2000... AIA will launch Machine Vision Online in the first quarter of 2000, the first site dedicated to the machine-vision industry, creating expanded interchange between machine-vision suppliers, users and researchers. "Machine Vision Online will...

AIA Ready to Launch the Vision Show East.
January 1, 2000... AIA will sponsor its largest machine-vision conference ever held at The Vision Show East, to be held April 4-6 in Boston. The event is the first of its kind on the East Coast dedicated exclusively to machine-vision technology. The...

AIA Prepares for 8th Annual Business Conference.
January 1, 2000... The 8th Annual AIA Business Conference will be held Feb. 9-11 at the Walt Disney World Swan Hotel in Orlando, Fla. The event features an outstanding lineup of speakers and unparalleled networking opportunities. "This event is definitely a...

RI/SME's Student Robotic Challenge Set for March 19-20.
January 1, 2000... Dearborn, Mich.--Students of all ages are prepping their robotic devices for the ultimate manufacturing experience: the RI/SME Student Robotic Challenge 2000. Sponsored by Robotics International of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers...

Motoman Celebrates 10th year, 10,000th Installation.
January 1, 2000... West Carrollton, Ohio -- Motoman Inc. late last year celebrated its 10th anniversary and 10,000th robot installation with an open house at its headquarters. Technical product sessions, tours of the company's two Ohio facilities, a luncheon and...

Yushin America Opens Midwest Technical Center.
January 1, 2000... Cranston, RI -- Yushin America, Inc., one of the largest suppliers of injection molding robots in North America, has opened a new facility in Indianapolis, Ind. Yushin's Indianapolis Technical Center provides applications engineering and...

Lincoln Electric Opens Facility In Mexico.
January 1, 2000... Cleveland -- Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc. has opened a new manufacturing facility in Torreon, Mexico, which will produce arc-welding consumables for the Mexican market as well as for export to Central and South America. The plant is the...

GM Honors Automotive Facilities.
January 1, 2000... Detroit -- General Motors has recognized four of its North American facilities for their efforts on behalf of the environment, honoring them with WE CARE Awards for materials conservation and pollution prevention. One facility, the Saturn...

IA Engineers Receive NIH Grant.
January 1, 2000... Cambridge, Mass. -- Steven Gordon and his team of engineers at Intelligent Automation have been awarded a $4.7 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to develop technology to accomplish one of the final goals of the Human Genome...

Cloos Expands Training Facility.
January 1, 2000... Schaumburg, Ill. -- Cloos Robotic Welding Inc. has added 9,000 square feet of space to its current location to provide additional facilities for its customer service center. The added space will be used for demonstrations of four robotic...

Schmalz Offers Free Vacuum Training Seminars.
January 1, 2000... Schmalz Inc. is conducting a series of training seminars for engineering managers, application engineers and other users of vacuum components. The training programs will be held April 4 in Detroit; May 2 and 3 in Los Angeles; June 6 in...

Pyxis Corp. Acquires HelpMate Robotics.
January 1, 2000... Dublin, Ohio -- Pyxis Corp., a subsidiary of Cardinal Health Inc., has acquired HelpMate Robotics Inc. in a cash transaction valued at approximately $13 million. HelpMate, founded in 1984 by Joseph Engelberger, develops, manufactures and...

Rixan Associates Opens West Coast Office.
January 1, 2000... Dayton, Ohio -- Rixan Associates Inc., the national distributor of Mitsubishi and Samsung robotics systems, has opened its Western Regional Office in Windsor, Calif., to support the company's user base in the western United States and western...

Sybron Acquires Robbins Scientific.
January 1, 2000... Milwaukee -- Sybron International Corp. has completed the acquisition of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Robbins Scientific Corp., a manufacturer of biomedical products used in high-throughput screening, molecular biology, chemical synthesis and tissue...

RWT, Classic Cos. Form Strategic Alliance.
January 1, 2000... Fort Myers Beach, Fla. -- Robotic Workspace Technologies Inc. and The Classic Companies have agreed to form a strategic alliance specifically to serve the growing market for robot and robotic workcell redeployment. RWT is the developer of...

ABB Steps Up R&D in the United States.
January 1, 2000... Houston -- ABB, the global technology company, has designated the laboratory at ABB Vetco Gray in Houston to conduct corporate research projects, the latest step in a systematic increase during the past two years in the level of ABB research...

NextPath Acquires Willow Systems.
January 1, 2000... Hillsborough, N.C. -- NextPath Technologies Inc. has acquired Willow Systems Ltd., an Albuquerque, N.M., company that designs and markets custom motion control, robotics and electronics solutions in the areas of gimbals and...

IAONA Becomes Independent Organization.
January 1, 2000... Walthan, Mass. -- The Industrial Automation Open Networking Alliance is now an independent, self-governing entity operating under California law as a nonprofit corporation. IAONA is composed of leaders from the industrial automation industry...

Orchid Automation Expands in Tennessee.
January 1, 2000... Markham, Ontario -- Orchid Automation has opened a new automated assembly facility in Gordonsville, Tenn., near Nashville. The facility, which is 49,000 square feet with options to expand, features highly automated robotic assembly systems...

Cryo-Cell Awarded Patent on Cellular Storage System.
January 1, 2000... Clearwater, Fla.--The U.S. Patent Office has granted a patent to Cryo-Cell International Inc. for its CCEL III cryogenic cellular storage system. The robotically operated, computer-controlled unit can begin vial storage with one dewar, one...

Aquatic Cellulose Launches Underwater Robot Lumberjack.
January 1, 2000... Tucurui, Brazil -- Aquatic Cellulose International Corp., a pioneer in recovering submerged timber, has successfully launched the ATH-60 harvester, the world's first underwater robot lumberjack. The harvester, nicknamed Odyssey, entered the...

Fanuc Robotics a Finalist In PACE Awards.
January 1, 2000... Rochester Hills, Mich. -- Fanuc Robotics North America Inc. has been named a finalist in the PACE (Premier Automotive suppliers; Contributions to Excellence) Awards for its F-100 flexible positioner, a compact, six degrees of freedom parallel...

PEOPLE.
January 1, 2000... Electro Scientific Industries Inc. cofounder Douglas Strain is retiring as vice chairman of the board.... Jean Paul Beau-cousin has been named European sales manager for Applied Robotics' new office near Brussels, Belgium, and Sergio Soriano...

Emerson & Cuming.
January 1, 2000... Emerson & Cuming's new website at www.emersoncuming.com features the company's line of adhesives and encapsulants for electrical and electronic applications.

Northeast Conveyor Corp.
January 1, 2000... Northeast Conveyor Corp. is now an authorized systems integrator of ABB Flexible Automation robotics packaging systems....

Robots Help Packaging Industry Keep Up With the Times.
January 1, 2000... Manufacturers continue to face the increasing pressures of shorter lifespans of products and a growing segmentation of consumers into smaller target groups. In the world of packaging, that means more and different sizes of products and...

Robots Continue Penetration Into Palletizinq Market.
January 1, 2000... After a manufacturer's products have been assembled and packed into cases, those cases need to be loaded onto pallets and shipped out to distributors or directly to customers. Increasingly, companies are turning to robotics to automate their...

Robotics Industry Working to Bring Material-Handling Expertise to Distribution Industry.
January 1, 2000... While the robotics industry continues to move forward aggressively with packaging and palletizing applications in manufacturing plants, it's just starting to scratch the surface of the distribution industry. "The distribution industry is...

Follow the Fundamentals to Achieve a Successful Applied Robotic System.
January 1, 2000... If you spend time listening to people who are considering robotic automation, you'll notice the following question often comes up: "Should I purchase an applied system?" An "applied" robotic system is one that includes lead engineering, process...

Integrators Round Table.
January 1, 2000... Tips from the Pros on Working with an Integrator Bob Rice, Manager of Applications Engineering, Wright Industries Inc. Choosing an integrator is the first and most important step. The following criteria can be used as a guideline for...

COMPONENT SPOTLIGHT: END-OF-ARM TOOLING.
January 1, 2000... Robots can perform a wide variety of tasks, but they can't do a thing until they've been equipped with end-of-arm tooling. These critical components attach to the robots wrist and allow the machine to grasp, move and release product components,...

VACUUM PALLETIZING SYSTEM.
January 1, 2000... Schmaluz Inc.'s Vacu-Grip Palletizing System consists of two to four aluminum rails, each containing 20 vacuum cups, 20 vacuum generators and 10 blow-off pistons. Each cup has its own pneumatically powered generator, allowing a single system to...

ROBOTIC TOOL CHANGER.
January 1, 2000... ATI Industrial Automation's Quick-Change 300 tool changer is 10.2 inches in diameter, weighs 43 pounds and has a locking force of 7,940 pounds at 80 psi. Other features of the QC-300 are: No-Touch Locking technology; which allows up to a 10mm...

THREE-JAW GRIPPER.
January 1, 2000... Robohand Inc.'s RPC Series of three-jaw parallel grippers has been expanded with two new sizes for a total of five sizes: .40 inch, .62 inch, .87 inch, 1.12 inches and 1.37 inches. The grip forces are 300 pounds, 750 pounds, 900 pounds, 1,425...

MINIATURE GRIPPERS.
January 1, 2000... Two new miniature grippers from Techno Sommer Automatic, the GM10 and the GM16, are characterized by their slim design. By changing the pin-linkage configuration, the gripper can be changed from pneumatic-closing and spring-opening to...

ADJUSTABLE FORCE TOOLS.
January 1, 2000... PushCorp Inc.'s AFD 1000 adjustable force tools use active-force control technology for high-precision, high-throughput grinding, deburring, polishing, drilling or weld-shaving operations. A computer controller provides simple setup and...

VACUUM PUMPS.
January 1, 2000... PIAB Vacuum Products has launched an improved series of pneumatically driven vacuum pumps. The new Low-Pressure Mini Chip vacuum pumps are designed to handle low or fluctuating compressed-air pressures. The pumps, at an inlet pressure of 55...

3-D END EFFECTOR.
January 1, 2000... CHAD Industries'3-D compliant PIE handles almost any type of component without the need for tool changes. Its floating 3-D head allows body gripping while compensating for variations in the body-to-lead relationship. It virtually eliminates the...

FORCE/TORQUE SENSORS.
January 1, 2000... JR3 Inc.'s 12 DOF force-and-torque sensors allow the robot to compensate for the effects of acceleration. The signal-conditioning electronics for forces, torques and the six axes of acceleration are integrated into the sensor body. The sensor...

TOOLING COMPLIANCE.
January 1, 2000... EOA Systems has introduced Z COMPLY, a new product designed to give robot tooling free-floating compliance in the z axis. With Z COMPLY, robotics engineers have a tool that will allow for robot tooling to compress and absorb any z-axis...

GRIPPER COMPONENTS.
January 1, 2000... [greater than]SAS[less than] Automation Ltd. has improved its Get a Grip modular robotic gripper and end-of-arm tooling system by adding new components and tools. The company now offers more than 250 components to help integrators build custom...

COLLISION SENSORS.
January 1, 2000... The Ultimatic Robotic Collision Sensor from Robotic Accessories provides protection and flexibility in robotic or pick-and-place workcells, and it offers the unique feature of automatic reset following rotational, angular and axial compliance....

GRIPPER SYSTEM.
January 1, 2000... ISI Norgren Inc. recently introduced the GC Gripper system, which is designed to provide the ability to create various gripper configurations using standard modules. Rather than stocking multiple grippers, users can create a new style of...

GRASPER SYSTEM.
January 1, 2000... Barrett Technology Inc.'s BarrettHand BH8-244 is a lightweight, three-finger grasper system with onboard power and control electronics and patented synchronous spread motion. Its reconfigurable fingers, with a payload of 4.4 pounds, can grasp a...

CUSTOM TOOLING.
January 1, 2000... Remtec Corp. designs and manufactures custom end-of-arm tooling for the most demanding applications. The custom EOAT products, which are available for all robot platforms, are developed for those applications for which off-the-shelf tooling is...

FLEXIBLE FEEDER.
January 1, 2000... Hoppmann Robotics and Fanuc Robotics North America have developed the first system that combines flexible part feeders with a six-axis robot using vision and radial tracking. Hoppmann has added an integrated FW 4500 flexible feeder with a...

MOTION-CONTROL SYSTEM.
January 1, 2000... Robotic Control Group has introduced its patent-pending MC-In-A-Box motion-control system, which combines the simplicity of a true plug-and-play system with the flexibility to work with any controller and drive on the market. With the system,...

PROCESS MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE.
January 1, 2000... Perceptron Inc. has introduced IPNet, a new system that links the best in Internet technology with the best in plant-floor process management. The PC-based system was developed around Microsoft's DNA architecture under Windows NT, and it...

3-D VISION GUIDANCE.
January 1, 2000... The 3-D Location Measurement Sensor (LOCMES) from ISRA Vision Systems enables local measurement of position and objects in a 3-D space generating a 6-D spatial position vector. Typical applications of the system include robot guidance;...

PRODUCTION PILOT.
January 1, 2000... Adept Technology Inc. plans to embed Sony's Design for Assembly/Disassembly Cost-effectiveness (DAC) technology into its Production PILOT process planning and design software, developed by Adept's SILMA division. This plan marks the first time...

BEARING REDUCERS.
January 1, 2000... Spinea Ltd., a newcomer in the North American market, is introducing its TwinSpin cydoidal speed reducers. Tested in Europe, the reducers have several features, including integrated axial-radial bearings, compact size, high-output torque,...

ROBOTIC SOLUTIONS BROCHURE.
January 1, 2000... A new 26-page brochure discusses and presents pictorially how Robotic Production Technology Inc. provides turnkey robotics/automation systems for OEMs and suppliers in the aerospace, appliance, automotive, plastics, construction, consumer goods...

PHOTOELECTRIC CONTROL.
January 1, 2000... Honeywell Sensing and Control has introduced the HPK Series photoelectric control with self-contained thin amplifier. The product's specialized, symmetrical design allows it to be surface-mounted in four directions. It is ideal for electronic...

GANTRY ROBOT.
January 1, 2000... AFMA Robots of France has developed a three- to five-axis gantry robot for the industrial production of large and specific complex parts for special applications in the aeronautic, automotive and nuclear industries. The robot can perform...

SUPPLIER BROCHURE.
January 1, 2000... DCT, an automotive systems and services supplier, has published a new eight-page, full-color capabilities brochure. The brochure describes the company's background, philosophy, methodology, product lines and services. Case histories of DCT's...

CONVEYOR SENSOR.
January 1, 2000... Irregularly shaped objects and objects with either poor reflective or fully sound-absorbing surfaces are just part of the sensing routine of Hyde Park's Microsonic 800 series of flat-profile, ultrasonic, through-beam sensors. In...

BENCHTOP INSPECTION STATION.
January 1, 2000... Cincinnati Industrial Automation Ltd. has introduced a new line of benchtop EZ Vision automated inspection stations. The flexible stations include one of the company's complete PC-based machine-vision systems, along with a benchtop industrial...

CABLE CARRIER.
January 1, 2000... Igus Inc. has introduced the new Series 255 carrier, which uses a tighter pitch design than other standard polymer carriers for smoother operation at speed. The change in pitch means the arc of the carrier provides a truer, more gradual curve...

PC-BASED CONTROLLERS.
January 1, 2000... Xycom Automation has introduced OpenCNTRL Series XAC3400 Industrial Controllers with Windows CE, a new line of scalable product solutions for PC-based control applications. The products also are equipped with flash drives, and Windows CE was...

SERVO GUIDE.
January 1, 2000... Emerson Motion Control's new "Servo Solutions Product Catalog" contains detailed information on the company's Epsilon, EN and MX digital servo drives, FX positioning servo drive systems and Axima multi-axis controllers. Each servo drive section...

Adept Technology Inc.
January 1, 2000... Adept Technology Inc. has signed Kingroup Automation Industry Corp. as its integrator to handle flat-panel display system business in Taiwan....

QComp Technologies.
January 1, 2000... QComp Technologies plans to expand its Greenville, Wis., facility by 14,000 square feet for cell manufacturing and testing. The building also will allow the company to stage large gantry-style robots. QComp also is opening sales and engineering...

Stocker & Yale Inc.
January 1, 2000... Stocker & Yale Inc. has purchased fiber-optic glass production assets from the Schott-Fostec facility in Marlborough, Mass., which will increase its fiber-optic production capacity by 400 percent.

Xycom Automation.
January 1, 2000... Xycom Automation has been selected as Schneider Automation's preferred supplier of industrialized personal computer hardware....

Applied Robotics Inc.
January 1, 2000... Applied Robotics Inc. is moving from a direct-sales strategy to one that emphasizes partnerships with key distributors selling complementary products within selected geographic markets and industries in North and South America, Europe and Asia....

Peak Industries Inc.
January 1, 2000... Peak Industries Inc., an ISO 9001-certified company, received Quality System Requirements: Tooling and Equipment Supplement certification last year....

Promess Inc.
January 1, 2000... Promess Inc. has appointed Dempsco Inc. as exclusive representative in Ohio.

Lincoln Electric Co.
January 1, 2000... Lincoln Electric Co. has added features to its website at www.lincolnelectric.com to make browsing easier and more useful to customers, prospects, vendors, educators and anyone interested in arcwelding issues.

[3] COLLISION SENSORS.
January 1, 2000... Applied Robotics Inc.'s QuickSTOP robotic collision sensors can sense excessive rotational, angular and compressive forces and immediately trigger system shutdown, thereby avoiding damage to expensive tooling. The sensors' air-chamber design...