Collaborative robotics (cobots), which perform tasks alongside humans, are being rapidly adopted in workplaces. This trend is driven by the value automation brings to industries such as agriculture, food production, logistics and medical services. In addition to speeding up time-consuming operations, cobots do tasks that are often considered dull, dirty, dangerous or delicate. Plus, they can compensate for labor shortages or aging workforces. As a result, the global collaborative robotics market is expected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 43% over six years, and be worth over $10 billion USD by 2027.
Historically various robotic arm components have been made from metal materials that offer extreme durability. Yet these parts are costly to manufacture and require secondary processing with potentially harmful chemicals. Metallic robotic arms can also cause serious workplace injuries due to their heavy weight.
To lower production costs and improve end-product safety, cobot manufacturers are beginning to utilize high-performance thermoplastic solutions to drive business growth. These materials are particularly ideal for producing cobots designed to handle payloads under 10kg – which represent the fastest growing segment of the market.
Lowering your costs of ownership
High-quality polymers that are easily dropped into injection molding processes will enable manufacturers to achieve potential cost savings of up to 30% – as this method of manufacturing inherently supports non-linear cost scaling. At the same time, cobots are made of numerous small or intricate components with varying durability, flexibility, dimensional stability, and thermal and electrical endurance requirements. All these components require materials that are durable, lightweight and sustainable.
Helping you enhance cobot safety and efficiency
Thermoplastics empower cobot manufacturers to lightweight all key device components. These materials also make cobots safer for human collaboration and enable devices to operate faster by improving actuation energy efficiency.
Envalior offers you material solutions that are specially engineered to replace metal, without compromising the mechanical performance of end-parts. With their high flow and outstanding processing capabilities, our materials are optimized for injection molding processes that allow you to reduce part weight by 20 to 30%.
Our thermoplastic composite solutions, such as unidirectional tape can provide you weight savings of approximately 50% compared to metal alternatives – and result in similar stiffness and manufacturing costs. Plus, due to its glass and carbon fibre-reinforced matrix, our UDea™ line of thermally fusible continuous filament tapes are well-suited for overmolding applications used with our engineering materials.
