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Anna Kochan: Anna Kochan is Industrial Robot European correspondent
The world's first robot for glass-blowing is now patented and operating. The tiny French company, CyberGlass Robotics, which developed the technology, reports that one glass-blowing robot is already in production and a further two are due for delivery later this year (1997). Their customers believe it gives them great competitive advantage and do not wish to be named.
Finding skilled people willing to perform glass-blowing is becoming more and more difficult, partly because it is a very difficult and tiring job, and partly because it requires long and costly training. Automated glass-blowing techniques are therefore in great demand. The machines that have already been developed to occupy this niche can only produce relatively simple, small and light glass articles, in very high volumes, claims CyberGlass which is why the company has concentrated on developing a robotic solution.
Based on a six-axis industrial robot, CyberGlass claims its new glass-blowing machine is capable of reproducing the exact movements of an operator but with much greater repeatability. This is achieved through teach mode programming. The robot is, in fact, a standard Fanuc M710 which has been adapted to tolerate the high temperatures found in a glass-making facility and to the glass-handling task, and which has been equipped with appropriate tooling. Frederic Berud, CyberGlass co-founder, explains that he chose a standard robot because it would be proven and reliable. Fanuc was selected on account of its worldwide presence, he adds.
The molten glass that the robot has to handle is at a temperature of 1,100-1,300[infinity]C and the ambient temperature in the surroundings is about 60[infinity]C. This has required that plastic covers be replaced by inox, that ventilation systems be fitted on all axes and that a water-cooling circuit be built into the robot to extend to every extremity.
One of the most important modifications involved added electronic circuitry to permit the...