I have an assembly operation I would like to automate and am completely new to robots. My application requires 700,000 assemblies per year, the heaviest part included in the assembly is 3 grams. There are 6 components to assemble; I am envisioning vibratory bowl feeders to orient the parts and using the robots to place the parts on an indexing table for assembly operations. Is the AL5x arm appropriate for an application like this? What is the expected service life of the AL5x arms? If not the AL5x then what? Thanks for the help.
Not really - it’s classified as a hobby robotic arm and not intended to be used for extended periods of time (duty cycle of around 25%).
The only aspect which would break on the arm is a servo motor, and we rarely ever hear about broken Hitec servos.
The servo normally under the most “stress” (torque) is the one located in the shoulder, so that one tends to be the first with issues.
Even though the part itself is very lightweight, you need a robotic arm which is robust enough to handle being used for many hours straight without overheating. This really does entail a more industrial arm (which is not a segment we cover at this time). If you do find an affordable, small industrial robotic arm, feel free to pass it along here and we’ll see if it’s something we can carry.