Injection Molding at NPE2018: A Showplace for the ‘Smart Factory’
In Orlando, you’ll glimpse the future, and it’s automated and interconnected. But don’t worry, there are plenty of ways for plants of all sizes to get in on these trends.

Collaborative Robots Help Automate Blow Molding Lines
Collaborative robot arm automates bottle/jar packing at half the cost of conventional automation.

Cobot Helps Molder Keep Pace
Collaborative robot boosts process efficiency by 25%, while unburdening workers from the shop floor’s more tedious tasks.

Blow Molding: ‘Collaborative’ Bottle Palletizer
Collaborative robot arm makes new bottle palletizer safe to operate without guarding.

Large-Scale 3D Printing Venture Competes with Injection Molding
With 160 FDM printers, a Brooklyn startup offers part runs up to 10,000 units—and soon perhaps 100,000—at prices competitive with injection molding.

Automation: Collaborative Robots Get Vision Capabilities
Vision adds adaptive pick-and-place and stacking abilities for Universal Robots.

High-Tech Blow Molding At Agri-Industrial Plastics
This family-owned custom molder stands out in its use of advanced computer and automation tools to claim a niche in large, complex, and multi-layer parts.

AUTOMATION: Cobot Adds a 7th Axis
In what it calls a first iteration collaborative 7th axis, Universal Robots (UR) showcased one of its 6-axis robot arms mounted to a linear actuator in a faux machine-tending display at Plastec West.

K 2016: Connectivity & Collaboration in Robotics & Automation
Besides a handful of new robots and pickers, the big themes were modular ‘plug-and-play’ automation, Industry 4.0 connectivity, easier programming, and safer collaboration with human workers.

Making Standard Robots More “Collaborative”
Laser scanners can slow or stop a robot temporarily when a human approaches.

Now That’s “Collaborative”!
Pick-and-place product handling … simple assembly tasks … sure, or why not serving a cold beer?

‘Collaborative’ Robots Demonstrated at K Show
Let a robot hand you a beer.

Let a Cobot Hand You a Beer
So-called “collaborative” robots (or “cobots”) are supposed to be safe and easy to get along with—no need to wall them off in their own guarded areas.

ROBOTS TO ‘COBOTS’: Next-Gen Automation in Plastics Processing
So-called ‘collaborative robots’ are a new category of ‘human-friendly’ automation that can work safely side by side with people, unprotected by guarding.

Robots as a Remedy to Shopfloor Tedium
In any industry, at any company, there are jobs that while being 100% necessary are nonetheless menial, and that tediousness can generate high turnover.