Euroblech 2016: KUKA Industries is fit for Industry 4

From our  many years of welding expertise, we demonstrate  an application for you that combines classical welding with the most modern Industry 4.0 technology. The new KR Cybertech from KUKA Robots demonstrates welding of thick industrial sheet metal with the highest quality and digital connectivity to a process database. With the help of augmented reality, your actual equipment will be connected to the process database for seamless quality monitoring of your production. An operator receives direct and immediate feedback at the place of production for the quality of the welding seam, as a live image on a mobile device that directly shows the transparent process and quality of the seam on the workpiece. This enables quick and simple optimization of your production.

For increasingly shorter production cycles and differentiated products, we offer a crucial competitive advantage in the era of Industry 4.0. The simulation and programming software KUKA.Sim provides more transparency in production.
The customer is already able to test the deployment of equipment or application processes and optimization where applicable. "Through offline programming, various areas such as development and construction work hand in hand and already test the new work projects of the customer in the virtual world", says Siegfried Heissler division manager / Vice President ARCLAS of KUKA Industries.
"For example, the customer can start new models of production sooner." Longer idle times - between the old model and the new series will be avoided due to the virtual planning phase: The production planning already exists in the simulation and programming environment. Qualitative high-value programs are also able to be created and changed without stopping production. With the KUKA.Sim family of products, KUKA develops the optimal equipment for the individual production scenarios for your customers: KUKA.Sim Layout and KUKA.Sim Pro provide an efficient approach for the development and programming of newer production orders. "For smart production, the virtual launch plays a large role", says Heissler. The digital and real equipment will be brought together early, to secure and optimize the control program and the entire behavior of the equipment. That is why KUKA uses digital product and resource data. "We thereby are already able to test equipment by means of 3D simulations in the virtual world and achieve real production start at the customer’s site within a shorter time."
KUKA gets the customer in shape for the fourth industrial revolution, from cloud-based automated solutions to the use of virtual reality. "Regardless of the scope of the digitalization process of our customers, we are able to offer them the corresponding 4.0 solutions."

The standardized compact welding cell KUKA flexibleCUBE arc is perfectly suited for a dynamic production environment. The KUKA flexibleCUBE is flexible, deployable and user-friendly as well as quick and simple to install: The advantage of the welding cell fulfills the required standards of smart and modern production. The welding cell will be offered with various automation options. At Euroblech, KUKA shows the newest option: the compact welding cell with double turn/tilt positioners. Through use of two turn/tilt positioners, which have a load capacity of 400 kg each, the operator can load and unload while the robots are welding in the cell. This makes the cell especially interesting for volume production for medium and large quantities. The rotation mechanism is especially suited for welds on complex components and tasks", Heissler adds. There is of course the possibility for digital monitoring of production with customary smart devices. The production process can thereby be controlled from every desired location, e.g. by means of servicing - productivity and predictive maintenance are thereby always ensured. 

"Our experience and expertise in the development of flexible systems for automatic production enable us to offer each customer a suitable solution", said Heissler. KUKA relies on joining technology among others such as friction stir welding (FSW), which is used in the manufacture of batteries.
Visitors to the fair will be convinced of the level of welding expertise by KUKA. The automation professional will present a robot-based solution to achieve a three-dimensional, linear joining seam. "In combination with a single axis positioner, the orbital welded joints are no longer a challenge", says Heissler. Additionally, new process monitoring and documentation show the KUKA PCD (Process Control and Documentation) System. The process data will be numerically monitored and electronically archived and available for further possible analysis in an e.g.  cloud system. That is the basis for the implementation of Industry 4.0 and accomplishes more productivity, acceptable quality and data transparency.