GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK, May 29, 2023 – Global engineering technologies company, Renishaw, is unveiling a newly developed product line specifically designed for the industrial automation market. Building on its existing expertise and technologies for industrial metrology applications, the new RCS product line aims to transform the process of commissioning and servicing industrial automation technologies.
The new product line has been developed to solve some fundamental challenges within the global industrial automation industry. It focusses on the problems associated with manual set-up, calibration and maintenance of robots, such as operational accuracy and repeatability. The range comprises three products: RCS L-90, RCS T-90 and RCS P-series, all supported by a dedicated software suite.
RCS L-90 is a ballbar device which improves robot system accuracy, reduces deployment time and monitors robot health with simple routines controlled by its supporting software suite. RCS T-90 is a tri-ballbar system which enables robot users to identify root causes of poor performance, with further comprehensive tests to capture critical robot information – such as remastering the joint offsets to calculated positions, running master-recovery routines, and plotting 3D path performance. The third RCS product, RCS P-series, integrates a permanent Renishaw probing solution within a robot cell to apply in-process metrology and automatic recovery to automation processes.
Will Lee, Renishaw’s Chief Executive, says, “Our success over 50 years has been built on providing robust and reliable products that solve manufacturing problems across a wide range of industry sectors.” He continues, “With the global growth in the use of robots, which are increasingly being used for precision production applications, we are seeing significant challenges with aspects of robot operation. We believe we can address these based on decades of experience providing solutions for calibration and set-up within the machine tool and motion control industries.”
Built upon established and trusted Renishaw technology, this new product line for industrial robotics brings the company’s metrology expertise to an industry that has significant challenges with performance accuracy and repeatability. Categorised as either ‘in-field’ or ‘in-process’ products, the new RCS products help to simplify robot set-up, health checks and recovery of robotic applications following collisions. Working with Renishaw’s new intuitive robotics software, RCS Software Suite, the products support robots from a wide range of manufacturers.
“The existing processes surrounding robot set-up and maintenance are largely manual for an industry built upon automation,” says Dr Kevyn Jonas, Director of Renishaw’s Industrial Automation Products Division. “With no existing fully comprehensive solutions, these methods have been accepted, until today. Robot integrators and users now finally have a solution for a quick, simple and traceable means to manage their robots.”
The RCS products will be publicly available and demonstrated for the first time at Automate 2023 in Detroit on 22nd May, with a subsequent launch to the European market at Automatica 2023 in Munich on 27th June. For further information about the RCS products, visit www.renishaw.com/industrial-automation.
About Renishaw
UK-based Renishaw is a world leading engineering technologies company, supplying products used for applications as diverse as jet engine and wind turbine manufacture, through to dentistry and brain surgery. It has over 5,000 employees located in the 36 countries where it has wholly owned subsidiary operations.
For the year ended June 2021 Renishaw recorded sales of £565.6 million of which 95% was due to exports. The company’s largest markets are China, the USA, Japan and Germany.
Throughout its history Renishaw has made a significant commitment to research and development, with historically between 13 and 18% of annual sales invested in R&D and engineering. The majority of this R&D and manufacturing of the company’s products is carried out in the UK.
The Company’s success has been recognised with numerous international awards, including eighteen Queen’s Awards recognising achievements in technology, export and innovation.
Further information at www.renishaw.com.
