KUKA Robots Clean Parts With CO2 at FABTECH 2023

During FABTECH, KUKA Robotics featured a pre-engineered cell that uses KR AGILUS robots for surface preparation and finishing. The CM-1 cell from Reliabotics is a cost-effective solution that is quickly installed, easily setup and offers an automated dry cleaning process using recycled CO2 — the most efficient method of precision cleaning that also eliminates secondary waste.

Supercritical CO2 is an organic solvent ideal for micro to nano level cleaning that makes it one of the best non-aqueous cleaning agents. Its chemical stability, non-flammability, non-toxicity and low cost also make it very useful in today’s industrial environments.

For its CM-1, Reliabotics uses KUKA’s KR AGILUS, a compact six-axis robot designed for particularly high working speeds and offered in different versions, installation positions, reaches and payloads. Regardless of its installation position – whether on the floor, ceiling or wall – the highly versatile KR AGILUS achieves the utmost precision in confined spaces thanks to its integrated energy supply system and service-proven compact controller. In addition to a wide range of variants for operation in cleanrooms or potentially explosive environments, the KR AGILUS’s hygienic/splash-proof design is especially well suited for automated CO2 parts cleaning.

Reliabotics provides state-of-the-art technology to solve surface preparation needs through products, services and partnerships. In addition to dry and cost-effective precision cleaning and surface preparation, the CM-1 can be used to enhance any surface prior to bonding applications such as painting, dispensing and welding. It also cleans oil films and debris after machining and surface finishing processes such as grinding or deburring.

The Reliabotics Surface Technologies Group leads the industry in designing and offering solutions for surface preparation. The Group developed the M2 cleaning head/system, which is the most advanced and economical one of its kind. It utilizes at least five times less CO2 than any other CO2 cleaning system, and its full integration makes it one of the most accurate and optimized non-aqueous cleaning systems.

KUKA

KUKA is a global automation corporation with sales of around 3.3 billion euro and roughly 14,000 employees. The company is headquartered in Augsburg, Germany. As one of the world’s leading suppliers of intelligent automation solutions, KUKA offers customers everything they need from a single source: from robots and cells to fully automated systems and their networking in markets such as automotive, electronics, metal & plastic, consumer goods, e-commerce/retail and healthcare.

18/10/2023