b'\x1b\x1a\x19 \x1f\x18\x1d\x17\x16Machine TechnologySTRONGER AND LONGERBy William LeventonA lthough its not on the market yet, a maker of collaborative robots has unveiled a redesigned cobot with twice the load-carrying capacity of the currently available version. Benefits of the new design also include longer reach, faster op-eration and higher throughput at machine shops and other industrial settings.Manufactured by Denmark-based Universal Robots A/S, the UR20 cobot can handle payloads of up to 20 kg as opposed to the 10 kg max-imum of the UR10 model. Besides handling double the payload, the company says the UR20 offers 30% more speed and torque than the UR10 thanks to major modifications to the cobot joint.Weve changed the whole archi-tecture of the joint design, which al-lows us to push more power into theUniversal Robots USAjoint and increases the torque in theThe UR20 robot arm can lift more weight and reach farther than the version currently on the output, said Joe Campbell, seniormarket.strategic marketing manager at Uni- (machines) can run unmanned for aservo-algorithms that help the UR20 versal Robots USA Inc. in Ann Arbor,longer period of time. stop more quickly after moving from Michigan. This is how we get notA longer reach also means thatone point to another.just the (UR20s) payload but alsothe UR20 can support a wider rangeWhen people think about (re-get more speed out of it. of machine tools, he said, includingducing) cycle time, typically they He said the redesign also simpli- bigger CNC tools with larger spin- think about the robot moving fast, fies joint maintenance and improvesdles and cutting environments. he said. But the other part of im-reliability by significantly reducingAs for software, Campbell saidproving cycle time is getting the part count. the company developed advancedrobot to fully stop quickly.Another major UR20 selling pointLike the UR10, the UR20 can ac-is a reach of up to 1,750 mm com- about the authorcommodate 2-up grippers when pared with 1,300 mm for the UR10. used for machine loading and un-Given the reach of a robot andWilliam Leventonloading applications. Campbell said the size of the parts, you can onlyis a contributingthis term refers to a configuration fit so many pieces in the work en- writer for CTE.with two distinct grippers on the velope, Campbell said. With theContact him atend of a robot arm, one for car-609-920-3335 UR20, we can fit more pieces inor wleventon@ rying a finished part and another the work envelope, which meansgmail.com. for carrying a blank for the next 10SEPTEMBER 2022 MachineTech.indd 10 8/16/22 11:30 AM'