Automation has been a key performance driver in virtually all industries. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the construction line where complex yet repetitive assembly tasks have been delegated to robotic systems. You can largely trace the genesis of industrial robots to the 1960s and the early days of Silicon Valley; when high-performance semiconductors and the birth of the integrated circuit caused a boom in computer engineering.
Deploying robots in construction and manufacturing creates skilled jobs, it saves time and menial labor costs, increases throughput, and promotes greater occupational health and safety by removing human workers from tricky environments. Yet they represent a significant upfront investment that will only pay itself back if the robotic system is maintained and protected throughout its entire service life. Robot protection covers are designed for this very purpose.
This article is intended to act as a brief guide to robot protection covers, exploring the underlying materials, design principles, and performance properties.
Why Use a Robot Protection Cover?
As mentioned, robots are used in heavy industrial environments such as aluminum smelters, foundries, petrochemical plants, steel mills, and refineries. Each of these workplaces is associated with certain hazards that can be detrimental to human health. Yet they can also damage valuable equipment over time, or – in extreme events – within mere moments.
Robot protection covers are intended as a barrier to these extreme conditions, preventing corrosion or degradation due to adverse environmental conditions and temperatures. By covering critical parts of your robotic system, you can enable it to operate in a wider range of conditions thus perform better over the entirety of its operational life cycle. It is important to assess your application area carefully to ensure that your intended fabric/textile offers the right level of resistance, however.
Your robot protection cover may be waterproof, preventing moisture ingress and subsequent electrical failure, but how well does it fare with abrasion? There are many such questions you must ask yourself when designing bespoke robot covers.
Mid-Mountain Materials Robot Protection Covers
At Mid-Mountain Materials, we engineer a range of high-performance robot protection covers designed to withstand the broadest possible range of adverse effects. One of our leading solutions is the THERMOPAK® Robot Protection Cover fabricated from ARMATEX® SBN 13-602 Robotex. This cover can fully encapsulate robotic arms within a durable, flexible skin that is flame retardant, corrosion resistant, and electrically insulating. We engineer THERMOPAK® Robot Protection Cover on a made-to-order basis to ensure we can deliver a best-fit protection system for specific applications.
If you would like to speak with a member of the design team about specifications, simply contact us today.
