Robotic screwdriving and light assembly

Repetitive fastener runs are a good robot job, especially when torque has to be documented. Mixed low volume assembly usually is not.

Free, about two minutes, no phone number. You get an honest no when a robot is the wrong answer.

Who this is for

You build a product with a meaningful number of fasteners per unit, in enough volume that the same sequence repeats, and torque either matters for quality or has to be recorded for a customer.

The signs this fits you

• Long repetitive fastener runs on every unit.
• Torque documentation requirements from a customer or a standard.
• Wrist and hand complaints from operators running manual drivers.
• Quality escapes traced to missed or under-torqued fasteners.

What the cell looks like

A collaborative arm with a screwdriving end effector and a screw feeder, working over a fixture that holds the part in a known position. Torque control and recording usually come from the driver system rather than the arm. Feed reliability is the thing that determines whether the cell is a success: a feeder that jams every fortieth screw turns an unattended cell into a babysitting job.

What it costs and what it saves

Illustrative. Fixturing and the feeder are the variable parts; the arm is often the predictable part of the budget.

The justification is usually part labor and part quality. If you are paying for rework or containment because fasteners get missed, that cost belongs in the math alongside the labor. Torque traceability is sometimes the whole reason the project happens, in which case treat it as a requirement rather than a return.

When this is the wrong answer

• Low volume mixed assembly where a person with a smart driver is faster and far cheaper.
• Parts that cannot be fixtured repeatably.
• Fastener types or presentations that no feeder handles reliably.
• A product design that is changing, since fixtures and paths follow the design.

What an engineer has to verify

This is the checklist that keeps every number above a range. None of it can be settled from a website, and all of it gets settled before anyone quotes.

• Fastener count, sizes, and types per unit.
• Torque specification and whether traceability must be recorded per unit.
• Part fixturing and how repeatably the part can be located.
• Feed reliability for your specific fastener, tested rather than assumed.
• Cycle time target versus the sum of drive times plus moves.

Safety determinations are not on this list because they are not ours to make. Cell design, guarding, and the risk assessment belong to an independent certified integrator, every time.

What the research says

Peer reviewed work from our research library on this application. These are studies of other plants and other settings, not a prediction about yours, and the excerpts are the authors' own words. Every title links to the source so you can check us.

• Design of Human-Centered Collaborative Assembly Workstations for the Improvement of Operators’ Physical Ergonomics and Production Efficiency: A Case Study Luca Gualtieri et al. (2020), Sustainability

  From the abstract: “Industrial collaborative robotics is one of the main enabling technologies of Industry 4.0.”

• Friend or Foe? Understanding Assembly Workers’ Acceptance of Human-robot Collaboration Antonia Meißner et al. (2020), ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction

  From the abstract: “Due to rising demands on productivity and flexibility, assembly processes are currently experiencing a substantial transformation.”

• Balancing collaborative human-robot assembly lines to optimise cycle time and ergonomic risk Kathryn E. Stecke and Mahdi Mokhtarzadeh (2021), International Journal of Production Research

  From the abstract: “Human-robot collaboration can enhance productivity of production lines and reduce human ergonomic risk.”

• Safety Design and Development of a Human-Robot Collaboration Assembly Process in the Automotive Industry Sahar Heydaryan et al. (2018), Applied Sciences

  From the abstract: “Human-robot collaboration (HRC) is a complex procedure in manufacturing due to the problems posed by compatibility and operational safety among humans and robots, and by task definitions among them in a collaborative order.”

• Development and validation of guidelines for safety in human-robot collaborative assembly systems Luca Gualtieri et al. (2021), Computers & Industrial Engineering

  From the abstract: “Industrial collaborative robotics is one of the most promising technologies of Industry 4.0.”

The full assembly, screwdriving and fastening shelf has 14 works.

Real examples

See it run

Two clips of this job actually running, from two different manufacturers. Both are the makers' own marketing footage, showing a cell under good conditions with a part it was set up for, so watch them for what the motion looks like rather than as evidence of what your rate would be.