The metal processing industry struggles to reduce dependence on manual work especially for material removal operations as grinding polishing deburring and sanding. With the target of creating a more sustainable production environment, avoiding physical and repetitive task for people and reducing injuries and energy cost, Suhner has developed robotic grinding solutions. 

The single most important factor in robotic grinding is to guarantee the exact contact force with the surface during the process, even with variations in shape and orientation. The EFC-02 is the fully electric Active Compliance System that solve the problem of force control with its unique technique: forces and accelerations are measured at high frequency and controlled through an advanced control algorithm. This means that surface quality is ensured at each movement over time.

Thanks to the fully electric technology, the EFC-02 can provide advanced functions in-line with industry 4.0: connectivity with most industrial standard, robot programming aids, visual feedback and data-driven maintenance. Additional features will be added through software updates over time. 

Size and weight have been on focus on the development team since the first sketches. In fact, robotic grinding is often limited by accessibility to narrow areas as enclosure or sinks. The EFC size is the most compact of its category and when combined with Suhner end effectors, permit to overcame most of the reachability limitations.

Suhner developed the EFC to complete its offer for robotic grinding solutions, dedicated to productions of mid to small batch sizes. Suhner provides end effector, accessories to change abrasive automatically, programming software and abrasive material. 

Suhner end effectors excel for low maintenance, thanks to brushless motors and direct or belt transmission and high ration size-performance. With this end effectors, you can reproduce most of the manual operations, but if this would not be possible, Suhner can develop customised accessories or attachment on demand.

When introducing automation for grinding operations, the change of abrasives becomes a key to ensure autonomous working time. Suhner solves this challenge with automatic changers for abrasive paper disc and belts. The ESW is an abrasive disc changer, that can store and present new abrasives, ready to pick-up, from an angle grinder or orbital sander. It fits velcro discs of 3”, 5” and 6”.

In general, people imagine the usage of robots only for mass production, because the complexity of the system and its non-flexibility. Today, thanks to the democratisation of robots and the progress in technology, it is possible to built both, cost-effective and easy-to-use systems. Robot programming plays a key role in this matter, and therefore Suhner offers specific software to program robotic grinding. They have been developed to guide the operator through the programming steps and they have a simplified user interface to maximize efficiency.

The surface quality of your critical metal component ultimately depends by the abrasive material. Most of the time, people do not realise how much, the efficiency of the abrasive process, can affect energy consumption and abrasive consumption. Suhner relies on a global internal team of abrasive experts that can guide the robot process and get to the optimal solution in no-time. Suhner provide a complete range of abrasive materials, burrs and pastes that can be customized on request. To complete the offer, the Suhner’s ABRAcare service, helps you to manage your abrasive stock and supply chain effortless.