CBS Engineering,
Auckland New Zealand, identified a gap in the robot
palletising market, drew on their own expertise then
liaised with specialised industry sectors in a winning
combination.
The result - the Gpac 902 robot - is proving a
success in the New Zealand and Australian
manufacturing markets. Speed and accuracy, along with
flexibility and simplicity, were identified as key
design elements. Extensive trialling on the prototype
machine was monitored by CBS engineer Ian Baxter and
PDL Electronics sales engineer Andy Logue. A number of
Microdrive Elites are used some of which are required
to operate in Closed Loop Vector mode, receiving a
0-10V analogue signal from the CBS servo control
cards. The analogue signal is input to the Elite as a
torque reference, with the encoder input to the drive
being used by the servo card for position control. The
speed and accuracy of the Microdrive Elite’s
internal torque loops proved to be the key in
achieving the precision and speed CBS was after. The
Elites in-built ability to switch from speed to torque
mode is also utilised on all control axis. When the
load is travelling in a vertical direction, the torque
mode enables the arm to stop abruptly if it comes down
against an obstruction.
|
