Transforming Laser Marking Operations With Collaborative Robotic Automation

With laser marking and engraving critical for unique part identification, compliance and branding, forward-thinking manufacturers are transforming their laser marking operations with advanced robotic machine tending. FOBA Laser Marking + Engraving has partnered with Flexbotics and Universal Robots to enable companies to achieve the highest throughput and optimum marking quality.

On August 1, 2024, in Boston, the three collaborators are holding a half-day event with a live demonstration of a collaborative robot (cobot)-enabled FOBA laser marking workstation, best practices and proven approaches to real-world applications.

Laser marking is a critical stage of the value stream for a product in many manufacturing processes. Bottlenecks can cause serious delivery problems and any mistakes can render the product unsellable. By introducing collaborative robotic automation with lean manufacturing principles, laser marking processes can be improved to maximize throughput, assure quality and reduce waste.  Utilizing cobots from Universal Robots with Flexxbotics digitalization technology, companies running FOBA’s laser marking and engraving machines can increase the machine-to-man ratio to 10:1 or more and run ‘lights out’ safely. Thus, they will benefit from additional capacity, highest precision, optimum marking quality and improved profit margins. 

Flexxbotics includes communication with FOBA’s integrated camera system for vision-based inspection, providing closed-loop feedback to the robot for autonomous process control. FOBA’s three-stage laser marking process HELP (Holistic Enhanced Laser Process) — which includes part inspection prior to marking, automatic mark alignment and subsequent validation of the marking — is coordinated with the robot actions. Flexxbotics utilizes either the Intelligent Mark Positioning (IMP) or Point & Shoot (P&S) capabilities in the FOBA equipment for precise alignment of the laser marker on the customer’s product along with vision-assisted workflows for unmatched accuracy.