Flexxbotics teams up with Vention to release combined machine tending offering

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Vention and Flexxbotics are partnering to deliver a combined offering for advanced robotic machine tending. | Source: Flexxbotics

Vention, which offers the cloud-based Manufacturing Automation Platform, or MAP, yesterday announced a partnership with Flexxbotics, which supports robot-driven manufacturing. The companies said their combined offering for robotic workcell digitalization in next-generation machining environments is now available.

The partners claimed that customers can now benefit from the combination of Flexxbotics’ machine-tending system with Vention‘s MAP offering. Customers can now use Vention’s cloud-robotic tools and modular automation hardware to design custom workcells, while also taking advantage of Flexxbotics’ software-as-a-service/hybrid system.

Flexxbotics also said it offers services for deployment and continuous operation to achieve “lights out” manufacturing. 

“We are excited to partner with Vention to deliver custom designs for robotic workcell digitalization,” said Tyler Bouchard, co-founder and CEO of the company, in a release. “We understand the necessity for the fleets of robots in the smart factory to connect, communicate, and work interactively with the CNC machinery and inspection equipment to provide the closed-loop coordination necessary for autonomous process control.”

“We make robots go far beyond simply working with the machinery,” he added. “The robots command and control the machines to optimize production, enabling greater throughput and ‘lights-out’ manufacturing.”

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Vention provides accessibility; Flexxbotics digitalizes workcells

Vention said that by providing a single digital environment, it makes industrial automation more accessible to manufacturing professionals. The Montreal-based company claimed that it combines 3D design, code-free industrial programming, and a library of more than 4,000 modular automation components.

With the library, users can navigate through the stages of designing, creating, deploying, and operating automation all within one platform, it asserted. Vention said it aims to empower all manufacturing professionals, from automation beginners to advanced integrators, to efficiently design and procure the systems for their unique requirements across the factory floor. 

Once the design process is done, Flexxbotics staffers can deploy and optimize the Vention-designed robotic systems along with its own system for machine tending. 

“Vention’s mission to democratize industrial automation addresses the manufacturing world’s toughest challenges,” stated Etienne Lacroix, co-founder and CEO of Vention. “With production reshoring, labor shortage, and salary inflation, companies are looking for breakthrough solutions to automate their shop floors.”

“Through this partnership, manufacturers now have access to a complete, turnkey offering, leveraging Vention’s Manufacturing Automation Platform and Flexxbotics advanced machine tending solution, along with their knowledge and expertise in deploying complex workcells,” he said.

Workcell digitalization is enabler for smart factories

Flexxbotics said it turns conventional robotic machine tending into robot-driven manufacturing and autonomous process control. The company’s technology enables robots to communicate directly with the CNC machinery and the inspection equipment in a workcell. This provides closed-loop quality control of precision machined parts.

The company can use inspection results to direct the robots to make necessary adjustments to the CNC’s program to account for tool wear and other variables. This ensures that the production of each part aligns consistently with specifications, guaranteeing the highest quality, capacity, and profit per part while maintaining tolerance levels, it said.

Last month, Flexxbotics announced that Scott Harris, co-founder of SOLIDWORKS and Onshape, has mentored and invested in the company. It said the unspecified “strategic investment marks an exciting development for Flexxbotics, propelling the company towards further innovation and growth in the field of smart factory robotic manufacturing.”

This week, the Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence Division’s Sixth Sense Program named Flexxbotics a winner for its joint offering for robot compatibility with inspection equipment. Flexxbotics also recently announced compatibility with Okuma Machine Tools’ CNC machines.