Robotics World articles from July 1999

Robotics World archives from July 1999

To the Point.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Today marks the beginning of my relationship with Robotics World as its senior editor. When I received the invitation from publisher Alan Douglas to work with Rob Spencer, our new editor, I jumped at the opportunity. Like the industry it...

International Robots & Vision Show Marks Significant Growth.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Nearly 6,300 people attended the biennial International Robots & Vision Show, held in Detroit May 11-13, which marked a 24 percent increase over 1997's show attendance. The combined audience for the three co-located shows comprising...

Robot Orders Rocket to Record in First Quarter.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 1999... The North American robotics industry sold more robots in the first quarter of 1999 than in any quarter since the industry began collecting statistics in 1983, according to the Robotic Industries Association. A total of 4,732 robots valued at...

Winners of First RIA Robotics Scholarship Announced.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Three student teams took top honors in the first-ever Robotic Industries Association Scholarship Competition. Each team was presented with a $1,000 award and plaque at a special ceremony during the International Robots & Vision Show. The...

Pioneer Receives 1999 Robots & Vision User Recognition Award.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Pioneer Hi-bred International, Johnston, Iowa, was chosen as the recipient of the 1999 Robots & Vision User Recognition Award for its use of robots and machine vision to depalletize bags of agricultural seed. The award is sponsored by the...

Get Your Free Robotics Industry Directory.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... The Robotics Industry Directory is a valuable resource for robot users, and the 1999 version features more than 160 profiles of major suppliers of robotics and peripheral equipment and services. The listings are easy to locate with quick-find...

Fall Programs Educate Robot Users.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... RIA has three valuable programs planned that will educate users on robot safety issues and specific applications including cutting, machining, material removal, machine tending and press loading. National Robot Safety Conference Sept....

The Vision Show Returns to San Jose in October.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... The Vision Show, the world's leading machine vision event, will return to the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, Calif., Oct. 5-7. The show offers the most comprehensive annual showcase of vision components, systems and solutions. ...

Motoman Expands Headquarters Facility in Ohio.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Dayton, Ohio -- In April, Motoman Inc. completed a 70,000square-foot facility expansion at its headquarters in West Carrollton, Ohio. In less than 10 years, the company has grown from its original 40,000-square-foot site to the current...

Motoman Wins 1998 Market Engineering Leadership Award.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Dayton, Ohio - Motoman Inc. was chosen as the 1998 recipient of the Market Engineering Leadership Award for taking the lead in expanding its product line and improving customer focus. The award was given by Frost & Sullivan, a market and...

Sames Corp., FANUC Robotics North America Agree to Alliance.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Franklin Park, Ill., -- Sames Corp., formerly Binks Sames, said at its annual shareholders meeting in April that it has executed an agreement with FANUC Robotics North America Inc. "This strategic alliance builds on earlier arrangements...

Cognex, FANUC Enter Into OEM Agreement.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Natick, Mass. -- Cognex Corp. has entered into an OEM agreement with FANUC Robotics North America under which FANUC expects to purchase more than $1 million of Cognex machine-vision systems over the next two years. FANUC Robotics will...

Symposium on Laboratory Automation and Robotics Set for Oct. 17-20.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Hopkinton, Mass. -- ISLAR '99, the 17th in a series of symposia dedicated to laboratory automation and robotics, will be held at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel Oct. 17-20. A strong emphasis will be placed on presentations by senior laboratory...

Robotics For Semiconductor Factory Automation Down 34%.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 1999... New Tripoli, Pa. -- The worldwide merchant market for robotic hardware and software for semiconductor factory automation dropped 34 percent in 1998 following a 27 percent increase in 1997, but the market will be flat in 1999, according to the...

RS Technologies Expands to New Location.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Farmington Hills, Mich. -- RS Technologies, which makes force and torque measuring equipment, moved its offices March 1 to a larger facility at 24350 Indoplex Circle in Farmington Hills. The new facility doubles the company's space to...

Adept Technology to Purchase BYE/OASIS Engineering.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... San Jose, Calif. -- Adept Technology Inc. has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to acquire BYE/OASIS Engineering Inc., a private manufacturer of mini-environment systems and Standard Mechanical Interface for the microelectronics industry....

De-Sta-Co Partners with EMA Industria in South America.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Madison Heights, Mich. - De-Sta-Co Industries has entered into a partnership agreement with Brazilian toggle clamp manufacturer EMA Industria e Comercio Ltda. The partnership will merge EMA and key De-Sta-Co South American assets into a...

Stepping up Flexible Automation?
July 1, 1999... Know the Basics of Workcell Design Before You Do As a manufacturer, you've decided it's time to turn to flexible automation. Maybe you want to improve productivity and therefore increase profit. Maybe you've had one worker too many develop...

Lasiris Offers New Series of Lasers.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Lasiris' new MFL series of laser products can produce lines as thin as 9 microns at precise working distance and are designed for applications where utmost accuracy and precision are required. MFL lasers use Lasiris' patented uniform...

DC-Regulated Illuminator.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Machine-vision applications demand a fiber-optic light source with precisely regulated output and a wide variety of features. To solve this challenge, Dolan-Jenner Industries has released the PL900 DC-regulated illuminator. The PL-900...

Fostec Offers Dimmer on Light Sources.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Fostec Inc. now provides an electronic dimmer with full range intensity control on its 115-volt ACE and ACE Remote light sources, an important feature for coaxial lighting and microscopy applications requiring the use of alternating light...

Volpi Line Converters Provide Uniform Illumination.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Volpi Fiber-Optic Line Converters produce highly homogeneous lines of light for a variety of applications that demand uniform illumination over a linear area. The company offers a wide range of line lengths for standard products and custom...

3-D SIMULATION TOOL.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Adept Technologies Inc.'s Digital Workcell allows integration engineers to program a workcell without the physical robot or cell hardware. It increases robot engineering productivity by allowing the user to anticipate and/or identify cycle...

GRIPPING SYSTEMS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Schunk Precision Workholding Systems has introduced a number of new grippers for 1999. Among the offerings this year are several two-finger parallel grippers, a two-finger angular gripper, a three-finger centric gripper, a piezo-electric...

NEW MOTOMAN FAMILY.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Motoman has introduced the newly designed, high-speed UP series of compact robots that can be placed close together and require minimal installation space. The new robots are controlled by Motoman's new, easy-to-use XRC controller, which offers...

LIGHT CURTAINS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Tapeswitch Corps newest product is the Guardstar B Series Light Curtain, the result of a comprehensive design program to create a compact, intelligent unit capable of answering current and future demands in the guarding industry. At the heart...

TOOL CHANGER.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... ATI Interface is finding acceptance in the marketplace for its SW-150A robotic tool changer for transgun spot welding and heavy-duty material handling. In its second year of marketing, the changer has two patented features that give it superior...

SPACE-SAVING DESIGN.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Nachi Robotic Systems Inc. is offering a new space-saving design, which is demonstrated at the Robots and Vision Show in May with a high-density spot-welding application. In the demonstration, Nachi used six robots (two SF166s, two SG160Rs and...

ABB WebWare.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... With ABB's new WebWare, users can monitor production data from a standard Internet browser, locally and remotely. Users can connect to their local area network, dial in from a remote location or log onto the Internet and analyze live and...

HUMAN-SCALE ROBOTS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... The new F3 Robot from CRS Robotics uses high-torque, high-reliability DC brushless motors, absolute encoders and high-stiffness harmonic drives. The result is increased production rates, reduced costs and improved quality for machine loading,...

SIX-AXIS ROBOTS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... FANUC Robotics North America introduced a number of new products at the Robots & Vision Show in Detroit. The LR Mate 200i is the company's first six-axis compact robot, which is capable of performing intricate tasks while lifting parts of up to...

WAFER-HANDLING ROBOTS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Adept Technology Inc. has introduced the AdeptVicron robot series of four models designed for semiconductor wafer handling applications. The AdeptVicron 200S (single arm) and 200D (dual arm) are designed to handle up to 200mm wafers. The...

CABLE JACKETING.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... To create the ideal jacketing for a particular application, Canadian-German cablemaker elocab's design engineers rely on numerous polymer mixtures and additives to create individual jacketing solutions to protect its tailor-made cables against...

DIGITAL FRAME GRABBER.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Imagenation Corp. introduced at the International Robotics & Vision Show its new 32-bit PXD1000 Digital Frame Grabber for machine vision systems. Priced at $1,295, the PXD1000 supports most commercially available digital cameras. The camera...

ROBOTIC GRIPPERS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Zaytran Inc. has introduced the Tandem-Xray-1250 Series of high-performance robotic grippers designed for applications that require the gripper to handle very large parts. A target application is the entire range of truck wheels, which can...

MINI VACUUM GENERATORS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Venmark International now offers a new line of miniature venturi vacuum generators that mount at the end-effector, provide instant pickup and release, require minimal air flow and are ideal for a wide range of applications where space is...

SERVO SLIDES.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Yamaha Robotics has expanded its single-axis product lines to include eight servo-slide Economy Series models, each with a complete arm, cable and controller. They are designed to automate material handling, assembly, processing and packaging...

MIG WELDING WIRE.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... The Lincoln Electric Co. has introduced SuperArc and SuperGlide premium MIG wires, manufactured under a process that ensures consistent chemistry and constant diameter with tight tolerances. SuperArc copper-coated wire provides the ideal arc...

ROCKER PANEL SYSTEM.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Ventax Robot Inc. has developed an automation system designed to process automobile rocker panels. After molding, rocker panels are transferred by a standard Ventax linear robot onto the processing system, which automatically degates the panels...