Robot Transfer Units manufacturer/ supplier recommendation for smaller industrial robot arms

    Is there any recommendation on suppliers of robot transfer units for smaller industrial robot arms?


    Usually I can get the RTUs from the robotics company themselves, but the lead time right now is pretty long, especially for a non-standard product. I'm working with a Kawasaki RS007L (https://robotics.kawasaki.com/…/index.html?language_id=4) and KHI actually recommends finding external suppliers for smaller transfer units since they don't have a 1m size and will have to build it out in Japan, which can take well over 6 months right now as an estimate.


    This is for a validation cell so a lot of things will be representative and scaled down which explains the small size requirement. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated, thanks!

  • 95devils

    Approved the thread.

    Welcome to the forum...............:beerchug:

    Not that I have much experience with suppliers of linear slides, what you appear to require is something that is somewhat 'customized' and not something that is likely to be produced for a consistent market.

    Just doing a simple google search for Robot Transfer Units or Robot Traverse Axis yielded many companies.

    I expect other members may be able to offer something more specific (if they have used similar).


    The first comment I would make, is that if it is for a validation cell, then you could utilize KROSET and it's built in models of traverse axes (or draw something very basic) and you can limit the motion on the traverse axis to suit your 1 metre requirement without having to purchase the kit.

    This could at least serve 'validation' purposes for development.


    I will mention the obvious - is a traverse axis necessary, could you use an arm with a longer reach?

    However, I suspect this has already been researched.

    The main company I worked with in the past for 3rd-party linear rails was Gudel. Their stuff was always good, although it tended to be quite beefy (overengineered). And not cheap. OTOH, I never had any of their stuff fail on me.


    As long as you can provide them with the needed engineering data (length, robot weight, robot mounting pattern, the motor you want to use to drive the rail, etc), they should be able to build something that you can bolt your Kawasaki servo to, mount your robot to, and go.


    Note: You'll need to specifically ask for a Mastering/Zeroing point of some kind to be added, and where you want it located. Depends on what you want, but if you don't specify it, you won't get it.

    Thank you for the replies


    kwakisaki: K-ROSET is a very useful tool and it is being used, but the validation cell is required to test hardware and also situations encountered in the field, so I will need to build a physical cell. Also for demo purposes for customer (who usually aren't exactly impressed with simulation-based proof of concept). But these are good questions to keep in mind for sure to avoid buying unnecessary tools.


    SkyeFire: Gudel is one that we're looking into as well :smiling_face: But speaking to Kawasaki they seem to think that Gudel will also have a long lead time and advised us to find additional options. I just heard back from Lincoln Electric, so we'll see if that's comparable. Thanks for the recommendation!


    Essentially, our main concern right now is lead time of build, so US-based company that don't require any imported parts might help.

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