ABB Robots

ABB is one of the biggest and best respected Robot manufacturers in the world. Asea, Brown Boveri is a Swiss- Swedish multinational that is highly regarded for a wide range of electrical and industrial equipment and machinery. The company was formed when ASEA of Sweden which was merged with Brown - Boveri of Switzerland in 1988. ASEA had a long history in robots going back to the early seventies when their range of simple but highly accurate robot arms was considered revolutionary. They were among the first to completely dismiss hydraulics in favour of electric power and were the first to use an anthropomorphic (like a human arm) design that gave a great deal more flexibility to the robots movement. To control this ASEA used microprocessors. Incidentally these designs were widely copied by other manufacturers and almost all anthropomorphic 6 axis robots owe their original inspiration to this design.

 The main robotics base of ABB is still in Sweden and much of the hardware is Swedish, made with fantastic quality and precision. ABB have followed an evolutionary development every few years updating and introducing new technology into their range which is one of the most extensive in the industry. They were one of the first to use all AC servo motors which made a huge difference to the reliability of robots and their feedback control system was one of the first to give the accuracy that is now typical of an industrial robot. Another string to ABB's bow is that in 1985 ASEA bought the Trallfa company that specialised in painting robots, this has developed into ABB's painting robot division that is still at the forefront of painting robot technology.

The first full production robot that ASEA made was the IRB 6 which was in production from 1974. This was used in the world's first ever "lights out" 7 days a week 24 hours a day factory- a Swedish company called Magnusson. The robots worked polishing stainless steel pipe work for the food industry, in this dirty environment the robots operated un-manned, virtually non stop, for over 25 years! This proved out the capabilities of the IRB 6. The next robot ASEA lanched was in 1975, the middleweight IRB 60 which was designed to capture the spot welding market, the first of these were used by SAAB. The last addition to this early range was the heavyweight IRB 90, which helped finally kill off the hydraulic robot. This was a full six-axis machine and had water air and power services delivered through the arm specifically for spot welding applications. IRB 6, IRB 60 and IRB 90 robots used either the S1 or S2 controller and can be considered the first generation of electric powered robots.

The second generation came with the introduction of the IRB 2000 launched in 1986. Backlash free gearboxes were used in place of the early ball screw designs and most significantly brushless AC drives were used to deliver higher torques, with smaller size and much greater reliability than the previous DC drives. The next major release was the IRB 6000 robot which appeared in 1991. This came with a new modular design concept which reduced complexity (it used 60% fewer parts than its predecessor) and allowed easy adaptation to the customers needs. It allowed greater reach or heavier capacity and other variations depending on which modules were used. This lead the IRB 6000 to being widely adopted by major car manufacturers such as Ford and GM and were installed in huge numbers. These robots used the S3 controller which developed significant advances in stability and usability over their predecessors. The final version of the S3 the M93 can be considered another major advance as they were the first to use double safety chains and therefore are still compliant with current legislation for robot safety. They also use a feedback system that does not use absolute encoders, this means that the robot can find its position very accurately without the need for special calibration procedures, much simplifying and speeding up maintenance work. This combined with the modular design means that a motor on an IRB 6000 can be changed in less than an hour, although this is very rare requirement as they have an excellent reputation for reliability too!

The next advance was in 1994 with the introduction of the S4 controller. This has two major advances. The first was a better designed teach pendant that allows the user to view more instructions and used drop down boxes and other features familiar to PC users. The second was improvement to the computing power of the control unit. This allows dynamic modelling giving better control of the robots acceleration and deceleration and movement path. In practice this makes the S4 much better at following curved and complex paths especially at speed. Also the robot arms were updated and renamed. Thus the IRB 6000 became the IRB 6400 with smaller yet more powerful motors. The IRB 2000 became the IRB 2400, and the IRB 1500 became the IRB 1400. Also a new model the IRB 4400 was introduced. This is a middleweight robot that has a capacity of between 10kg and 60kg. Although not used in great numbers this is a robot is exceptionally popular on the used market.

In 1997 ABB released the S4C (Siemens had already got the S5 name for their PLC range). The C was for compact but this represented much more than a repackaging exercise. Although the programming interface and many of the functions remained the same new components and layout was used throughout the control cabinet. User integration was simplified and made more accessible by putting connections in the top section of the cabinet. These changes came with slight improvements in speed and accuracy and some optional programming and connectivity features. By this time some more modifications had been made to some of the arm types. Notably the IRB 2400 had been redesigned to simplify maintenance.

In 2000 ABB introduced the M2000 S4C+ cabinet. This is a fully PC based system although the programming language is still the same as the S4C and the S4. The main difference is extra connectivity and ease of use with other computer systems. ABB have recently released the IRC5 System. This new control system can control more than one arm with a single controller which can be useful in multi-robot systems.    

At Global Robots we try and keep a wide variety of post 1993 ABB Robots in stock. Robots such as the IRB 6000 and IRB 2400 are very popular indeed and we effectively have a waiting list for some ABB robots. Contact us to find out what is due in and when and to place advanced orders or get us to look for rare or oversubscribed models.

 

6 axis ABB Robots Commonly stocked by Global Robots:

Robot Type	Control Type	Software	Applications	Our Notes
IRB 1500 6kg 1400mm	S3 (compact)	M93	Welding, Light Handling, Machine tending, Pick and place,	Getting rare now a good budget choice for simple MIG welding.
IRB 1400 6kg 1400mm	S4, S4C, S4C+	M94 to M2000	Welding, Light handling, Pick and place, Machine tending, Invertible,	Very popular with all 3 control types. Pre- orders usually required for S4C model.
IRB 2000 10kg 1800mm	S3	M93 and M93A	Welding, Handling, Machine tending, Pick and place, Light grinding, Invertible,	Very popular, an excellent multipurpose budget robot.
IRB 2400 10kg 1550mm 16kg 1550mm   L version: 7kg 1810mm	S4, S4C, S4C+	M94 to M2000	Welding, Handling, Machine tending, Pick and place, Light grinding and fettling, Invertible,	Hugely popular! Everyone wants one (at the right price) especially S4C models. Lots of pre-orders.
IRB 3000 30kg 1875mm	S3	M93,	Handling, Machine tending, Pick and place, Grinding and fettling, Gluing, Assembly, Water Jet and Laser Cutting, Stud welding,	Still popular due to medium size, but now very rare on the used market.
IRB 3200 10kg 2452mm	S3	M93	Light handling, Machine tending, Sealing, Arc welding,	A strange beast with a very long and slender arm. Quite rare.
IRB 3400 10kg 2452mm	S4	M94	Light handling, Machine tending, Sealing, Arc welding	The S4 update of the 3200, Slightly more common.
IRB 4400 45kg 1995mm 60kg 1995mm 30kg 2432mm 10kg 2547mm	S4, S4C and S4C+	M94 to M2000	Handling, Machine tending, Pick and place, Grinding and fettling, Gluing, Assembly, Water Jet and Laser Cutting, Stud welding,	Both very popular on the used market and very rare. Loved by medium size companies where space is at a premium but rarely installed in large numbers.
IRB 6000 120kg 2400mm 150kg 2400m 100kg 2800mm 75kg 3000m	S3	M93A	Handling, Machine tending, Pick and place, Grinding and fettling, Gluing, Assembly, Palletizing, Spot welding,	A hugely reliable workhorse, still very popular as a large, budget robot especially for handling. Once very common, now becoming rarer on the used market as they find second users.
IRB 6400 120kg 2400mm 150kg 2400mm 100kg 2800mm 75kg 3000mm 200kg 2400mm	S4, S4C, S4C+	M94 to M2000	Handling, Machine tending, Pick and place, Grinding and fettling, Gluing, Assembly, Palletizing, Spot welding,	An exceptionally useful machine in all guises. The 6400 is in huge demand by companies big and small, especially with S4C control.