From Individual Components to Complete Systems

With probably the largest exhibit that WEISS has ever constructed for a trade fair, the automation specialist is seeking to focus on the benefits of its fully integrated product offering along an automated production or monster process. The platform in the example automation line is the LS Hybrid linear transfer system, which was presented as a prototype at Motek last year. The latest product from the Fast Lane product family combines the proven cam drive with a linear motor module. Depending on the customer’s requirements, the cam drive delivers the necessary high output, speed, and precision, and the linear motor track makes the module able to be freely positioned. Along the individual stop positions, cyclical and directly driven rotary indexers, linear motor axes, gantries, pick & place modules, torque rotational units, and delta robots demonstrate how they can be utilized in the automation process. All components are integrated into the WEISS control package, where they can be configured and operated.

Premiere: WEISS Delta Robot DR

For the first time, WEISS is showing off its latest product, the WEISS Delta Robot DR, in action. Integrated into an example automation line, WEISS will demonstrate the tasks that its Delta Robot is designed to handle: extremely rapid turning, packaging, assembling, or sorting. Typical handling units that handle just one process step are increasingly being replaced with delta robots because of the individualization of electronic consumer products, pharmaceutical products, and much more. “We decided to launch a delta robot under the WEISS brand because we saw great potential there for many customers. One reason is because we wanted to develop even more efficient assembly solutions, and another is because customers can benefit from our integrated world of Products, as well as how quickly they can put these new systems into operation,” explains Michael Fraede, CEO of the subsidiary WEISS.Cube GmbH with regard to the strategy behind the entrance into the robotics market.

WEISS Delta Robots can be equipped with two to five driven axes with up to three translatory and two rotary degrees of freedom, as needed. The operational range of the WEISS Delta Robot is between 200 and 2000 millimeters. The nominal loads range from 0.5 to 350 kilograms. All axle joints are equipped with roller bearings, which operate precisely with a repeatability of up to 0.05 millimeters, even at extreme accelerations and speeds. This makes them unlike conventional spring-loaded systems.

As with all WEISS products, the Delta Robots DR are provided with their own control package, meaning custom drive regulators and W.A.S.2 software. This package can be used to put WEISS Delta Robots DR into operation in less than one hour. In addition, the software has extensive diagnostic and optimization features, and is equipped with all standard fieldbus interfaces including OPC UA.

New LS Hybrid transfer system with 20 percent increase in performance

The new LS Hybrid transfer system from WEISS guarantees cycle times that are up to 20 percent shorter. This enhancement of the proven LS 280 transfer system with a purely mechanical drive is based on a combination of a mechanical cam drive and a direct drive. This modular approach within a line means that various requirements can be met with precision. A new cam development called eCam is the core of this performance improvement. A servo motor is included so that the respective movement profiles overlap. This results in shorter transport times as well as lower mechanical stress, meaning less wear. A freely programmable rotary indexer from WEISS has been added as well for the purpose of redirecting around corners. This now makes it possible to integrate processes such as loading and unloading into the previously unused redirection step.