Renishaw launches line of industrial automation products

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Global engineering technologies company, Renishaw, is unveiling a newly developed product line specifically designed for the industrial automation market. Building on its existing expertise and technologies for industrial metrology applications, the new RCS product line aims to transform the process of commissioning and servicing industrial automation technologies.

The new product line has been developed to solve some fundamental challenges within the global industrial automation industry. It focuses on the problems associated with manual set-up, calibration, and maintenance of robots, such as operational accuracy and repeatability. The range comprises three products: RCS L-90, RCS T-90, and RCS P-series, all supported by a dedicated software suite.

RCS L-90 is a ballbar device that improves robot system accuracy, reduces deployment time, and monitors robot health with simple routines controlled by its supporting software suite. RCS T-90 is a tri-ballbar system that enables robot users to identify root causes of poor performance, with further comprehensive tests to capture critical robot information – such as remastering the joint offsets to calculated positions, running master-recovery routines, and plotting 3D path performance. The third RCS product, RCS P-series, integrates a permanent Renishaw probing solution within a robot cell to apply in-process metrology and automatic recovery to automation processes.

Will Lee, Renishaw’s Chief Executive, says, “Our success over 50 years has been built on providing robust and reliable products that solve manufacturing problems across a wide range of industry sectors.” He continues, “With the global growth in the use of robots, which are increasingly being used for precision production applications, we are seeing significant challenges with aspects of robot operation. We believe we can address these based on decades of experience providing solutions for calibration and set-up within the machine tool and motion control industries.”

Built upon established and trusted Renishaw technology, this new product line for industrial robotics brings the company’s metrology expertise to an industry that has significant challenges with performance accuracy and repeatability. Categorized as either ‘in-field’ or ‘in-process’ products, the new RCS products help to simplify robot set-up, health checks and recovery of robotic applications following collisions. Working with Renishaw’s new intuitive robotics software, RCS Software Suite, the products support robots from a wide range of manufacturers.

“The existing processes surrounding robot set-up and maintenance are largely manual for an industry built upon automation,” says Dr. Kevyn Jonas, Director of Renishaw’s Industrial Automation Products Division. “With no existing fully comprehensive solutions, these methods have been accepted, until today. Robot integrators and users now finally have a solution for a quick, simple and traceable means to manage their robots.”