Hey there /diy/
I happen to have the freedom of doing PMs on a production line that isn't running on our shift today at work, which involves FANUC robots. Anyone interested in learning about FANUC robots?
this looks damn cool
what can you make with it
>>948153
this one is a material handler. it picks up a part out of a cooling rack, sets it in a pierce unit, picks another, picks pierced part out, places New part, places finished part onto a poke-yoke fixture that also date stamps, then repeats. we make automotive suspension subframes and engine cradles.
added name for the thread. also, this is the teach pendant that you control the robot with.
3 more material handlers in the next cell.
I wish I had some gripper cylinders to rebuild for you guys. it's always fun working with high strength springs, but I fixed all the broken ones we had a few months back.
pretty big robots. its on about a 3 foot tall base.
If you guys are interested I'll show how to move the robot etc, I know it's not really /diy/ related but I remember the old 6 axis sex robot thread from a year or two back lol.
>>948179
We still program ours at the pendant. But we don't have to do too much programming very often. Mostly we just have to touch up points, some times add some moves and programs for new fixtures
>>948179
and sims are only good enough for general moves, not the real world with locator pins, and precise moves to avoid collisions
>>948183
Why?
>>948184
from my experience, things aren't usually exactly to print, and my company usually goes the cheap route. if they have the choice of spending $5,000 to an independent contractor or company to map it all out in a sim, write the program, test it, then come out and write/upload the program to the robot, then make all the minor adjustments here, OR spend $1,000 in labor for a maintenance/robot tech to program it here but take twice as long, they'll choose to do it here.
Also, the lines are usually built first at the build companies plant, tested there, then broken down, shipped here, and set up again here. there's usually issues with the installation here that needs fixtures or robots to be moved, and reprogrammed
>>948190
Hey buddy, this is exactly the kind of stuff I am getting into--robotic welding.
I barely know anything yet, I'm in school and programming is next year.
What should I know now to better prepare me?
I'm considering building my own little make shift robot with an aruduino and basic little motors and arms.
I also have a bunch of pdfs on my comp on how to program various robotic arms such as motoman and abb.
Talk to me buddy, and keep up the pictures, I'm enthralled.
>>948198
find a factory that does robotic welding, and get a job there. you can start as a temp or operator and work your way up. that's what I did, and they are paying for me to go to school to be a maintenance tech. you might even be able to get into an apprenticeship program there.
do you know about welding? if not, learn. you won't really need stick or TIG, since most robotic applications are spot welding or MIG.
I don't know much about the programming when it comes to writing new programs. I can touch up points and move welds back on seam, but I'm only a maintenance tech apprentice.
>>948198
depending on what route you go, weld tech, maintenance tech, or robot tech (programming), you will need to know different things.
weld tech will have to diagnose welding issues with a robot, as well as touching up welds, programs, etc. this includes power supplies, wire feeders, and other robotic weld components (liners, nozzles, tips, diffusers) because operators are dumb lazy fucks.
Maintenance tech has the most to learn, including hydraulics, pneumatics, robotics, PLC, electrical, troubleshooting drives, wire feeders, power supplies, and getting the robots back in sequence, fixtures back in sequence, knowing the production lines inside and out.
Robot tech would just be for troubleshooting robots and their related hardware, and writing programs, usually only work on line start ups and installations as far as I know.
>pic related
inside of a robot control cabinet.
Where I work, the weld techs don't need special schooling, except for being a CWI by the end of their 2nd year (I think) However, we get free motoman and FANUC classes through the purchase of the robots (basic programming with arc welding is $1800 a person for moto) that the company sends maintenance techs and weld techs to, free.
>pic related
4 FANUC weld robots
>>948198
What are you going to school for exactly? also, What do you want to be? weld tech? or a programmer? or just regular maintenance?
>pic
Motomans welding a part for the Chevy Equinox.
>>948222
I lied. this is for a GM or Caddy car, can't remember what
>this ones the Equinox
>>948150
idk how bored you are but I would read anything you posted/linked about these. I work in a factory and we've used 4 or 5 of these for years in our warehouse for wareflow. The poast year+ a bunch of engineers have been trying to use 2 of them to replace 2 human jobs actually on the production line, and they've been up and running for a few weeks now... they'll be lucky to replace a single job lmao.
Anyways, what is a FANUC robot? Why do they always move kinda slow and then BOOM killer robot fast? Why do they suck at doing at high school dropouts job?
>>948231
FANUC is just the brand name. depending on the program, it moves at different speeds. there's even a setting that can be adjusted to adjust accuracy of its moves. higher accuracy = slower movement. when the programmer writes adds the movement line, they set the speed of the move.
robots can do a lot. but it requires more fixtures and such for a robot to do what a human does. most robots can't process information as well as a human does, and the ones that can need a lot of extra equipment to scan the area, etc etc. what jobs are they trying to get the robots to do?
>pic related
see how the lines state how fast the robot is to complete the move? (500mm/sec 1000mm/sec)
do these robots use any optical cameras/lasers for accuracy checking? i like watching these robots something satisfying about them when they do welds
>>948239
no, these robots do not. they do track their movements etc though. they have battery back ups to retain the information as well in case of a power outrage etc. I do believe some robots do use optical scanning but I'm not sure exactly. We have some 'perceptron' units in house, some that are a fixture with fixed cameras, others with a fixture and cameras mounted to the robot that moves to a set position, snaps a photo. sends that info into the program, and tells us if it's good or not. (Z bracket is x mm further in the Y-axis than allowed, part rejected) etc etc. it's neat but it's a high profile line that I can't really have my phone out at taking pictures. I'm going to get some videos recorded and make some webm's at some point.
>>948241
>>948238
Forgot name on these posts.
>>948210
>Robot tech
how much training or school for this job?
>>948210
>inside of a robot control cabinet
>>948244
honestly I'm not sure. I'd assume it's pretty much the same as a weld tech. maybe $6,000 in robotic school for each type of robot you'd work on? probably 6mo-12mo OTJ training. Or, whatever it would cost to take some robotic classes at your local technical school.
>>948245
oh yeah you like that? how about this electrical cabinet?
>>948248
Hhhnnnggg,... those DIN rails,
all them terminal blocks
here's like 12 control cabinets and Lincoln weld power supplies.
>>948250
enclosure for the turntable
>>948253
Forgot pic
fanuc a shit
motoman was here
>>948257
I prefer FANUC, however, most of the other maintenance men and the weld techs prefer motoman
kuntucky bro, is this you?
>>948261
Yes it is. Where have we met?
>>948262
its me the foreman, get back to work
but for real post some more robot pics, end of arm tools specifically
you gonna be on for a while?
>>948272
work for another 2hr 45min lol. how did you know I was in Kentucky though eh? exif data?
>webm related
FANUC drops welded part onto idle station, motoman picks it and drops into the pierce unit.
>>948277
wrong file, also apparently too big so can't post.
>>948277
Differnet anon; 4chan strips exif data now, it's why we get people constantly posting images upside down.
How often do these robots break down? I'm guessing it's not too bad as they look pretty repetitive, or does that make them go down even faster?
>>948280
ah got ya. wonder if he was in one of my /r9k/ threads then. usually there's not much to work on. the welding robots go down a fair amount, due to weld faults (wire burns back to tip, wire sticks to part etc)
the actual material handlers generally run well, occasionally we get a broken gripper (bolt or shaft in the gripper cylinder) but again, that's an accessory, not the robot itself.
wish I had a picture of the robot broken in half by an operator jumping over a sync bit for a rotating table. It called the table to flip while the robot was still in the area, broke the arm in half completely.
>>948286
jesus christ, do you guys not use torque couplings or overvoltage alarms?
>>948291
yes we do, but the way the robot was positioned and the speed of the table it fucked it up good. I've never seen it, I've only had minor collisions, and we use shock sensors and servo tracking etc but shit happens.
>>948238
Basically take the product (a cylinder) off of a metal "tree" structure, on wheels, scan the barcode on it, put some more barcode stickers on, then put it in various shipping containers. Once said shipping containers are full, they are pushed onto a conveyor belt.
I'm aware that all robots have limitations, but like I said they already have multiple of the exact same robots int he warehouse that handle the exact same product (moving it from one container to another), so watching this project which I'm sure was millions of dollars fail at putting on stickers is pretty funny, yet also sad since I work at a Fortune 500 tech manufacturing company.
motoman material handler with double sided EOAT
close up of the empty side. hard to get good pictures in shit lighting with shit phone camera.
decommissioned perceptron robot. used to have a photoeye mounted to the end.
another eoat. single sided.
>>948323
FANUC>Motoman. the FANUC pendants are so much better. more informative, easier to understand. everyone britches about having to hold SHIFT. Like, it's not that big of a damn deal, you have to hold the dead man anyways.
>>948325
just finished the chang over to the GM avalanche chassis. this is first off the line since c/o the robot is assemblying the trunk and doing a quick deburring all on a double sided EOAT. the robot in the video is a motoman SK6000
https://youtu.be/wFui2OMDqeM
>>948325
man fuck shift, gotta switch hands all damn day
my motoman doesnt even have a deadman
a fanuc crystal lcd broke while was using it the other day. im running it in teach but the automation was in auto and some shit flys off the machine and kills the screen 45% of it
>>948307
Yeah
desu I don't get why they need to robot at all, vs a sophisticated conveyor system. It takes a human less than 5 minutes to empty a tree onto the line (about 30 minutes worth of sorting and stickering work). But I guess there's a reason those guys get paid $200k+ a year to fuck up multi-million dollar projects and I don't...
>>948327
FUCK OFF IMPOSTER
>REEEEEEEEEEEE
j/k.
lmfao are you the legendary /diy/er? that video had me rolling.
>>948330
I hold the pendant/dead man in my left hand and hold shift with my thumb. never have to switch hands for anything. also sounds like you have some zone / clear bits / I/O problems if your fixture moved with the robot not clear.
>>948332
Cost vs money saved. 2 robots can eliminate 80 hrs of labor if it gets installed and programmed right, and theoretically, will be faster when done right. Problem with engineers is they look at the data on paper and say 'this will work' and then the maintenance men installing it, or the fabricators, have to say 'no it won't' and explain why. But the engineers always say, 'it worked on the paper, it'll work here'.
>>948327
also bro, when's the last time you did a grease replacement on that robot? you got it heavily used didn't you? don't need a motor burning up in it, I assume they are expensive.
>>948337
So even on paper, it would never be as fast as humans. "Normal production" requires 72 items/hour processed, which is the metric production workers are graded on, and the machine was designed for 40seconds/item (90/hr). BUT when production gets sped up, or backed up, or any other hiccups, humans can ACTUALLY pump out up to 148 items/hr. The machine was designed to barely meet production needs, and now they're saying it won't even be able to do that.
The funniest part is that only replacing one vs both workers is an abject failure, it wasn't a labor or skill intensive position. The lowest paid workers do a great job at it, but it requires some bending over, so it's the biggest reason for long-term disability leave in the plant. Halving how often people go there isn't gonna stop the people that have 20-year union members from deciding they want 6 months off and saying they have back pains lmao.
>>948337
it was doing what i wanted it to, but someone left a stapler in the path of a cylinder and it went flying
right into the screen q_q
>>948333
good good
thats probably what it looks like in the plant anyways when the lines running
because i shouldnt have tested out the untested new eoat on a 45* angle (without doing a tool center point) because soo blazed
>>948352
then I would say yes, it's a failed plan. sounds like management dropped the ball. we are a nonunion shop though.
>>948348
oh my fuck i know i just spent $2300 to have that servo repaired. the servo noise went down but holy fuck the U axis sounds soo bad. i exspected it and it was grease everywhere i gotta buy me some robot grease
>>948354
bro you are something else. Where you live at anyways? seemed to me you need to learn up on your coords a little better lol. you use tool mostly? I used to religiously use World until I became maintenance and learned my coords and started using Joint.
>>948356
should be Molywhite for S, L, U, R, and Harmonic for B and T if I am not mistaken. we just did a grease replenishment over Christmas shut down. shit sucks when you have robots hanging upside down 10 feet above you.
they put a sticker over my fuckiong encoder like thats gonna stop me
>>948355
It's being done by corporate (we are one plant, in one division, of our company), and one of their "top automation guys" has done a few projects here lately. They have all been flops, with his last one being a miserable, multi year, "replace a dozen workers per shift in our most critical process", uninstall everything after 3 weeks failure. After this small project also not meeting expectations, I'd be surprised if he has a job soon.
Anyways how you like GM?
>>948356
did it blow out a seal?
>pic related.
third shift retard blew out a seal on the U axis because he didn't pull the out plug.
>>948361
I don't work only for GM. We do GM, Ford, BMW, and VW.
it's not bad. full ride apprenticeship for maintenance degree. Will have my journeyman card in less than 4 years. also will be a certified state electrician.
Only took me 3 years or so from temp to maintenance apprentice.
>>948357
fucking called out
new tool so i figured id use world/joint because im not setting up the TCP right now shits on a 45 you see that shit and i am high ass shit for your video sometimes i surprise my self
but yes i fuckin loooooove tool mode
because i have no deadman i can freestyle on joint wayyy easier than the fanucs at work, i just put the pendant in my lap and use both hands on assloads of axis
i can also smoke and do robots so no deadman makes that possible
>>948365
lmao. so you work in a factory? what state if I may ask? what company? GM/Ford?
>>948362
thats kinda what i think happened. when i had the servo out the axis felt fine but fuck if im gonna have to do that
>>948366
ontario
tier2 for mostly ford/gm but shit like plastic and termionals smaller robots
>>948367
oh you had the motor/servo out of the robot????? yes you need grease. don't run it until you get some in it lol! you will fuck it to shit hahaha. get some molywhite asap
>>948362
that robot looks like it shit all over it self
>>948371
I work for a Canadian based company hahaha
>>948373
that's basically what it did.
just had to cut my damn lock off a gate. think a tumbler broke or something. wouldn't unlock :(
>please solve 5 captcha before posting
fuck me.
>>948382
>had to solve 5 captcha
stop browsing like a robit then
>>948372
>>948373
>>948207
>>948210
>>948222
hey buddy, thanks for the thorough replies.
My program is an manufacturing technology program for welding and robotics.
First year is hands on welding.
Second year is inspection , metallurgy and intro robotics
Third year is programming, pneumatics, more metallurgy, PLCs, etc.
Excited, have an interview for a big automotive plant tomorrow for summer work. Having trouble sleeping.
Wish me luck!
what happened with the guy trying to make a sex robot
in work early. here is a motoman in pieces, from having to rob parts off of it for lines still in production.
we are doing a tear out of a decommissioned line.
lower arm piece.
>>948623
>>948621
last one upper arm, this is the rest.
>>948150
I have 3 fanuc robots in my facility right now.
I have an LR mate a 410C with a custom EOT as well as an M1 with vision on it.
What's up?
>>948255
>grey wireway brackets
disgusting
>>948639
we have uhhhh 51 FANUC weld robots and 10 Material handlers. On just one line.
we actually just sold 35 Panasonic's set up for welding that were sitting in our warehouse. have about $35,000 in Panasonic spare parts too. the buyer only offered $5k for the spare parts so we told him lolfuckno.
>>948640
and you prefer what? Bright Pink? As long as it gets the job done, I don't give a rat's ass.
>>948642
And I just say weld/MH because for the life of me I can't remember the model numbers. I know the numbers are in the pics I posted earlier though.
>>948179
Not OP, but I occasionally work with fanuc robots. Programming with a pendant is literally the fastest and most no-brainer way to program anything that's pretty much ever existed. You jog it to where you want a point and shift-enter, put what speed and what arm motion type you want (linear, world... And continuous?) And move on to the next one.
All contractors program on site using the pendant.
>>948668
thanks bud. I'm still pretty green when it comes to some things, obviously, and struggle to explain at times.
>>948672
No problem! On the topic of doing PMs, don't forget to change the batteries (usually) on the base of the robot. Also, be careful about changing the batteries in the controller, you can dump the program pretty easily doing that.
>>948426
Don't sell yourself short in the interview, there's a lot of jobs and demand for people like you and there will only be more and more demand. Obviously don't neglect to tell them the things that you have learned in school and tell them what your curriculum will be teaching you.
>be me, already in industry
>couod get a job at any factory that has automation (all of them)
>>948674
batterys are done yearly, they were just changed around Christmas. I'm doing monthly pms. checking for grease leakage, worn locators, bad cylinders and valves, bad air lines. etc.
got a bad servo B axis on a MH. wish I could get pics or video but been down a while and boss all over it.
>>948679
same here, the boss let me keep them
he also hooked me up with a real robot battery, becos on my motoman , i just kept wiring up cell phone batterys to it and it they would die after 6 weeks
>>948621
>>948623
>>948626
ohh baby yessss
man, if you have anything motoman from the MRC controller era , the sex robot foundation project would greatly appreciate it
>>948769
so im assuming its a motoman because you say b axis, you have mostly newer motomen (newer being relative)
ok, so im gonna assume its an XRC UP something, do those have 2 pulleys and a differential for B and T? or like direct drive on gear reducers or something?
>>948776
big motoman material handler. no pulleys on these, but the small ones do.
>>948776
NX100 series control box with HP200 material handler. we've changed AXA board. NTU board. Motor. still not running. now trying 1bc cable replacement
>>948838
NCP01 board...according to the troubleshooting flow chart it has nothing to do with it, and according to our motoman 'expert' it has nothing to do with it. and now the faults have cleared. dafuq
>>948843
and getting communication fault again. I'm going home lol fuck it.
>>948846
ended up being the encoder cable running from the 1bc cable input through the robot to the encoder...
>pic
4 SK16X and 4 EA1900N robots we are pulling out of a decommissioned line.
here's the robot we worked on. the motor in the top of the picture, on the right hand side is what we changed.
>>948155
looks just like a yasnac how old is that robot?
>>949271
uhh kinda old I'd guess, I'd be lying if I said I knew. we have older fanucs as well.
>>949271
at first glance i though it was,
but with the colour lcd screen it cant be more than 10 years old
>>948838
>>948843
>>948846
jiggle the cables
turn it on off
dont turn it back off ever
that worked foer me for like 5 months
>>949239
>1bc
omg thats my worst fucking nightmare
i rerplaced every other cable/board associated with the encoder error before i even considered it, even made my own cable and soldered it right to the encoder cable spot on the encoder to replace the old one
>sk16
duuuude you gotta loot me some dat shit
>>949287
I knew from the minute we changed the motor and it still wouldn't run that it was the internal encoder cable but no one on our shift wanted to try to change it lol. with it being the internal cable we couldn't get the fault to clear (because there was no connection to the encoder)
also that pendant was a FANUC, not motoman, this is the pendant for our motoman (nx100)
>>949294
had to delete picture due to sensitive details. Will repost
>>949300
Hey OP,
Electrician here,
I've worked oil and gas my whole life. Construction, QC, Maintenance, Commissioning.
Very lightly played with PLC via AB.
My folks want to get me a job at the Engine plant in windsor, how hard will it be for me to pick up PLC and robotics I'm a extremely fast learner.
>>949332
robots fairly easy. I've not started in on PLC yet but seems fairly straightforward
>>948150
Hey, is OP, anybody that has some know-how about Fanuc bots still here?
I have an interview coming up soon for a robotics position I really want to land.
It's not with Fanuc, but with an Ag company that is going to use their bots, and they want their Fanuc support team to assess me too.
I've had hobby and university experience with robotics, but nothing professional or industrial, and it has been my drive for a few years now to get my foot into the door of a career in robotics.
My background is BS+MS ME, with my MS having focus on design and dynamic systems; holonomic and non-holonomic systems, control theory, electronics and sensor integration/calibration, robotics, and machine vision.
I've worked on problems like trajectory-control, velocity control, path-planning, obstacle avoidance, stereoscopic vision, machine learning, as well as some time with a SCARA and PUMA robot.
Do you think they may ask me very technical design questions about the concepts about their robots? Or are they just make sure that I won't break the machine?
Anything to help land this would be appreciated, I've almost made it anons.
>>949359
I have no idea what they will ask you but don't lie or try to BS your way through the interview. they will know. it's hard to explain anything here. if I could do like face time or some shit I could lol. but no iPhone.
>>949366
I've got no intention to lie or bs, I feel that's the quickest way to bury yourself in over your head once you have to deliver.
If I get this position the company I'm working with will likely pay for me to train with Fanuc, and I'm hoping that's what happens. I'm not beyond admitting I still have a lot to learn and a lot more practice, but I'm assured that none of it is beyond my reasoning or abilities, and that's what I'm hoping to sell them on.
And also that I love robots.
They're fucking awesome.
>>949368
if there are any learning videos on FANUC on YouTube, I'd start there. if you have hands on experience with teach pendants already you'll catch on quicker too
>>949369
That's good thinking, thanks.
>>949371
all buttons on the pendant that are solid blue need you to hold shift for. ones with a blue border have a second function when holding shift. the I/O button at the bottom of the pendant is Fucking love. one click it goes to the I/O screen. hit F1 brings up the different I/O types. I'm drunk and at waffle house in case anything I say is spelled wrong or makes no sense lol
There is actually a school I want to go to that does robotics, but it offers it as a bachelors program for 10,000 dollars.
Worth it? Currently getting my welding associates.
Don't tell me this is in Muscle Shoals, the plant seems familiar
>Will be likely be learning how to program these things soon, not just designing the systems they're used in
Hype mode activate, I can't wait to do dumb shit with $300k machines
>>949510
nah, it's not
>>949785
I'm an idiot and cannot into using correct field for my name.
