At the end of last year, RoboJob and Humacs Krabbendam came out with the news that they wanted to pursue a joint approach to automate existing CNC machines. The majority of industrial robots are, after all, installed on new CNC machines, and both companies want to change that. The first results of the collaboration are now becoming concrete.
If you want to automate an existing machine, you have to ensure that you construct a communication channel between that machine and our robot,” says RoboJob’s CEO, Helmut De Roovere. "New machines often have such a “ robot interface”, whereas older machines don’t. Together with Humacs Krabbendam we’ve now figured out a solution: a standard interface that can work for all CNC machine brands. This makes the automation of existing machines even easier!"
Wim Hudepohl, co-owner and manager of Humacs Krabbendam is also pleased with the results achieved: “We’re extremely proud of this first milestone. Both teams have worked hard to come up with concrete results before TechniShow. They’re now there, which means we can start enthusing our customers at TechniShow next month to also automate their existing machines. This standard interface means we’re able to remove a lot of questions and uncertainties.”
“We’ll still be continuing to work on the entire picture of the installation together with the customer,” says De Roovere. “We are already doing that now, also for new machines. It’s important for us to thoroughly do our homework beforehand so that the installation can run smoothly. It makes a difference that part of the homework has already been done with this new interface.”
