Trade fairs - Lenze

10
Cover story
been TÜV tested. The safety devices are
separate from the equipment itself.
Pluggable modules equip the inverters
with their safety functions in a single
click.
The integrated safety technology
also increases productivity, since it
enables the motor to be stopped more
quickly. With the integrated safety technology,
the rotary field of the threephase
AC motor is immediately
switched off, so that the motor can no
longer produce any torque. A permanently
loaded DC bus runs throughout,
Robotic colleagues
It was just a few decades ago that robots
belonged to the world of science fiction.
But today’s car factories would be unthinkable
without them. They are used all over
the world in the automotive industry: most
of them work in Japan, followed by Germany
and the USA. They are used primarily
in the production of bodywork.
George Devol registered a patent for an
industrial robot in the USA in 1954. Two
years later he founded the world’s first
robotics company, Unimation, together
with Joseph F. Engelberger, and developed
a working industrial robot called the Unimate.
It was originally used on the production
line of car maker General Motors
where it stacked hot metal parts.
The microprocessor was invented in
1971, and the first pocket calculator, which
mastered only the four fundamental types
of arithmetical operation, was put on the
market that year by Texas Instruments. It
which also enables a quick start-up. For
instance, if a person enters the working
zone of the Turnflex, the system stops
immediately because man and machine
are not permitted to be active within
the zone at the same time. Once the
person has left the working zone the
drives can start up again immediately,
since the DC bus is still loaded. The
Turnflex has passed its first test at the
Bremen and Sindelfingen factories of
DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes Car Group,
where the system performs welding
tasks during the assembly of bodywork.
was also in that year that the first KUKA
robot took up its post in a Mercedes-Benz
factory. It was a European premiere.
But it was not until the 1980s that
robotic workers really began to feature
strongly in the car manufacturing industry.
Electronic drive and control technology had
developed rapidly, giving the automatons
an ever higher degree of production intelligence.
They made the most of their speed
and accuracy, especially in precision welding
processes. Today’s robots have even
more sensors, even better drive and
automation technology, and can even take
Robots at work on the production of cars.
It’s why the Stuttgart-based carmaker is
once again at the forefront of the production
industry. In 1971 it became the
first European company to use robots
for the production of cars.
www.kuka.de
care of entire work processes in teams. And
they no longer stand isolated next to one
another, but instead work in networks.
Other branches of industry also discovered
robots several years ago. Chemical
companies, for instance, operate automated
lines which conduct complex working
process completely autonomously. Furthermore,
these machines are not restricted to
factory halls. They also explore distant
planets, seek out mineral resources
beneath the ocean, and, as in the case of
the robotic dog Aibo, they serve as toys for
children.