The process library
Specific jobs on a plant floor, and a straight answer on whether each one is worth automating. Every page states the disqualifiers before the pitch, because most of these jobs should not be automated yet and you deserve to know which.
Palletizing
Palletizing bags and sacks
Bags behave nothing like cases. They sag, they shift, and they do not stack square, which is why a cell that palletizes boxes beautifully can fail outright on 50 pound sacks.
Mixed case palletizing
Building a pallet from one case size is a solved problem. Building one from fourteen is a different project with a different budget, and the honest answer for most small plants is not yet.
Depalletizing incoming pallets
Depalletizing looks like palletizing run backwards. It is harder, because you control how a pallet is built but you do not control how one arrives.
CNC machine tending
CNC lathe tending
Lathe tending is one of the best first robot projects in a machine shop, provided your parts run long enough that the arm is not the bottleneck.
Stamping press tending
Press tending removes a person from the most dangerous position in most metal shops. That is usually the real justification, and it is a good one.
Grinder and saw tending
These are dirty, loud, repetitive stations that nobody wants, which makes them attractive. The catch is that both throw debris at whatever is holding the part.
Welding
MIG welding small weldments
If you cannot hire welders and you have repeat weldments in batches, this is the strongest case in the whole catalog. If your work is one off repair, it is one of the weakest.
Robotic tack welding
Tacking is often a better first welding project than final welding, because it needs less precision and it unblocks the welders you already have.
Pick and place
Tray and cup denesting
Denesting is the quiet cost in a lot of packaging lines, and it is a genuinely hard picking problem dressed up as an easy one.
Kitting parts into trays
Kitting automates well when the parts arrive organized and badly when they arrive in bins, and that single fact decides most of the budget.
Picking from a moving conveyor
Tracking a moving belt is well proven technology. Whether it pays depends almost entirely on how the parts arrive on that belt.
Packaging and case packing
Case erecting and packing
The robot arm is usually the least interesting part of a case packing project. The erector, the sealer and the infeed decide whether it works.
Bagging and pouch handling
Flexible packaging is the hardest material class in handling. Anything that changes shape when you touch it costs more to automate than anything that does not.
Label application
If the answer is a print and apply labeler rather than a robot, we will tell you, and it usually is.
Assembly and screwdriving
Robotic screwdriving
Screwdriving automates well and fails on feeder reliability, not on the robot. Ask about the feeder before you ask about the arm.
Adhesive and sealant dispensing
A robot lays a bead the same way every time, which is exactly what a human hand cannot do late in a shift. This is one of the clearest quality wins in the catalog.
Press fit and component insertion
Insertion is where force sensing earns its money. A position controlled robot either misses the hole or breaks the part; a force controlled one finds it the way a person does.
Inspection
Presence and absence checking
This is the cheapest and most reliable machine vision job there is. If your defect is a missing part, you may not need a robot at all.
Automated dimensional gauging
Presenting parts to a fixed gauge is usually better than hanging a gauge on a robot, because the metrology stays in a controlled fixture and the robot only has to be repeatable.
Surface defect detection
Run this test before spending anything: give two inspectors the same fifty parts and compare their grades. If they disagree, no camera will settle it.
Material movement
Tugging carts between departments
Mobile robots replace the walking, not the work. Whether that pays depends on whether the freed hours turn into anything productive.
Moving pallets from dock to storage
Autonomous forklifts and pallet trucks are real and deployed. They are also a bigger commitment than a cart mover, and the service question matters more than the specification.
Delivering work in process to line side
This is the classic milk run, and it is the mobile robot application with the clearest payback when the schedule is genuinely repeating.
Sanding and finishing
Weld seam grinding
Force control is the entire reason this works. A position controlled tool follows a path; a force controlled one follows the part, which is what a seam actually requires.
Deburring machined parts
Before automating deburring, ask why the burr is there. Changing a tool, a feed or an insert is often cheaper than a robot cell.
Orbital sanding of panels
Flat and repeating geometry is the easy end of robotic finishing. If that describes your panels, this is one of the more predictable projects in the catalog.
Press brake tending
Press brake tending for small parts
This is the deepest integration in the catalog. When it fits it fits very well, and when it does not, no amount of robot solves it.
Sheet destacking and blank separation
Double blanks are the failure that quietly ruins bending and stamping cells. Solve separation before you solve anything else.
Panel bending versus press brake automation
For four sided boxy parts in volume, a panel bender often beats a robot tended press brake outright. It is worth pricing both before assuming the robot is the answer.
Not seeing your job?
Describe it in plain words and Joe will tell you which process it actually is, and whether it is worth automating at all.