From heaven to sea, an all-around athlete! Industrial robots make intelligent manufacturing "cool and double" cars | bumper | robots

The flexibility of hands determines that humans become the dominant species on this planet. Intelligent manufacturing also relies on a good hand. Nowadays, industrial robots are the extension of people's hands, they are versatile players who can do both rough and fine work. The connection of underwater sunken pipes can be easily handled by a "super welder" with just one move; The industrial mother machine for processing optical molds can achieve seamless processing; Is there really a "solar system" on the arm of a robot carrying a beam? What is the "holy hand" for performing holographic physical examinations and local surgeries on super water conservancy projects?

Welding the world's super engineering with robots

Make welding more efficient, precise, and reliable

The Shenzhong Channel has eight lanes in both directions, and the diameter of the sunken tubes is even larger than that of the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge. Each sunken tube weighs 9000 tons, equivalent to a medium-sized aircraft carrier. The 32 tube sections of the sunken tubes make up an underwater tunnel, which will be another world-class project.

At the manufacturing base of the steel shell for the immersed tube in the deep middle channel, a new immersed tube is about to begin construction, which uses a sandwich structure.

As the name suggests, the "sandwich" structure is a giant steel shell made of two layers of steel plates, inside and outside, and then poured with concrete between the compartments of the two layers of steel plates.

However, all giant steel shells rely on welding, and the total length of the welds on each immersed tube steel shell exceeds 300 kilometers. If manual welding is used, a immersed tube steel shell would require more than 1000 welding workers, with a construction period of up to 12 months. If all 32 pipe joints are welded manually, it is obviously impossible to complete the task on time. This time, the engineer decided to use robot welding.

The robot measures the size and position of the steel plate, and the brain quickly sends instructions based on the data. The laser sensor on the welding gun tracks and identifies the weld seam, and performs real-time correction.

If workers come to weld, they need to weld at least 6 to 8 layers, and the robots work together in one go, comparable to a "super welder".

Long Hanxin, Chief Engineer of the Project Management Department for the GK01 contract section of Guangzhou Shipbuilding International Co., Ltd.'s Deep China Passage Project: If we had the same welding workload, we would have needed 18 welders, but now we may only need 4 welders. And the quality of the robot welding is relatively stable.

On the dock, the manufactured sunken steel shell is being transported onto the ship. A pipe joint with a top surface area equivalent to the size of 14 standard basketball courts. The flatness of the giant cross-section reaches within 4 millimeters, such high accuracy is rare in the world.

Hydraulic turbine maintenance robot

Performing repair surgery for 41 year old Gezhouba

Gezhouba, the first large-scale hydropower station on the Yangtze River, celebrates its 41st birthday in 2022.

The rotor is the "heart" of the generator set, and the water flow drives the rotor to rotate, converting as much energy as possible into electrical energy. During normal operation, the surface of the impeller is smooth like porcelain, but the surging river water not only brings energy, but also fiercely impacts the surface of the impeller with mud and sand, leaving uneven scratches that seriously affect the health of the impeller.

At the age of 41, Gezhouba is about to undergo a major surgery to transform itself.

By manual labor, it takes at least 3 weeks to repair a water turbine unit, and an additional day of repair would result in a reduction of 3.6 million kilowatt hours of electricity generation. This time, the task of major repairs was handed over to the robot.

Install the robot on the inner wall of the turbine runner chamber, allowing it to climb and work along the curved surface between the complex impellers. And the polishing accuracy needs to reach the micrometer level, which is even more difficult than plastic surgery by doctors.

There is no precedent in the world for robots to perform in-situ maintenance on large water turbine units. How the first generation of water turbine maintenance robots performed remains to be seen.

Within 2 hours and 20 minutes, the robot repaired two nearly 1 square meter inner walls. Approved display shows that the robot's repeated positioning accuracy has reached 0.06 millimeters, and the machining surface roughness is less than 1 micrometer, which is three times higher than the requirement.

In the narrow space, the robot is like a Spider Man flying over eaves and walls, effortlessly repairing the inner walls and top blades of the wheel. A robot can complete maintenance work for 10 people per week in 24 hours.

On May 18, 2022, the wheel maintenance was completed, 30 days earlier than expected. Intelligent solutions have revitalized Gezhouba.

Five axis CNC machine tool flow

Electric guitar carved on the tip of a pencil

An optical mold part with a machining surface accuracy of micrometers and a surface roughness of Ra10 nanometers or less requires the use of precision CNC machine tools in order to achieve mass manufacturing, which is beyond the capability of human hands.

Processing this precision part requires the use of 9 knives, each with a micrometer level deviation, which can lead to a thousand miles of error. To solve the problem of tool size error and continuously approach the highest standards in the international precision machining field.

The clearance between the concave and convex surfaces of the workpiece processing reaches within 5 microns, which is equivalent to one twentieth of the thickness of an A4 paper, truly achieving a perfect fit.

The adjusted five axis CNC machine tool is like a pair of artist's hands, carving a delicate electric guitar on the tip of a pencil with an area of only 10.35 square millimeters. Only when the axis motion accuracy of CNC machine tools reaches the micrometer level can they achieve such smooth flow.

Fifteen years ago, the market share of independently developed CNC systems in the domestic machine tool market was less than 1%, but now it has increased to 31.9%.

Domestic heavy-duty robots

The manufacturing of the rear side panel of a sedan can be completed every minute

In the automobile factory in Wuhu, Anhui, 26 domestically produced heavy-duty robots are producing car rear side panels. These robots can load 210 kilograms on their wrists and accurately grasp, load, and automatically identify welding seams for welding. They can complete the production of a car rear side panel every minute.

Today, about one-third of industrial robots worldwide are used in car factories. However, looking at the 120 automobile factories in China, over 90% of robots are imported from abroad. If independent and controllable cannot be achieved, it will have a profound impact on the entire industry, and domestic researchers need to make up for this link.

The most difficult thing for heavy-duty robots to overcome is accuracy. Today, the repeated positioning accuracy of this 210kg heavy-duty robot has reached 0.072mm, one step closer to the international first-class standard of 0.06mm.

There are hundreds of enterprises in China that produce industrial robots, but there are no more than 10 domestic companies capable of mass producing multi joint robots with a load of over 100 kilograms.

Heavy load robots are a high mountain that Chinese robotics companies urgently need to climb.

Accuracy retention reaches 0.3 arc minutes

Chinese people can finally produce high-precision RV reducers

In industrial production, robots capable of lifting large beams often require a load capacity of over 50 kilograms, and the elbow joints of these top beam columns must use RV reducers with larger loads.

The annual production of industrial robots in China has reached 440000 units. However, for a long time, 70% of RV reducers have been foreign brands.

In 2015, Professor Zhang Yueming from Beijing University of Technology decided to challenge this domestic blank technology.

Turn on the RV gearbox, it looks like a solar system with both solar and planetary gears inside. This is the cycloidal planetary gear of the RV reducer, which is like a planet orbiting the sun, with both rotation and revolution. It rotates one revolution while also orbiting 40 revolutions, achieving precise transmission through multiple sets of planetary movements, reducing the high-speed rotation of the motor and increasing torque, driving the robot arm to rotate.

The cycloidal planetary gear is the core component of the RV reducer. Generally, the cycloidal planetary gear has 39 teeth, and the profile shape of each tooth must be consistent. Any slight error can affect the transmission accuracy of the entire RV reducer.

After tens of thousands of repeated optimizations, a unique cycloidal planetary gear modification design method has been formed, ensuring that the profile error of 39 tooth profiles is controlled within 4 micrometers.

After 100000 tests, the accuracy retention of the RV reducer reached 0.3 arc minutes, completely solving the problem of severe wear. Crossing the strict micron manufacturing process, the Chinese have finally been able to produce high-precision RV reducers.

Chinese robotic arm stunning space

Cool as Transformers

On November 17, 2022, the astronauts of Shenzhou XIV went out of the capsule to perform the mission. This is the first extravehicular activity of China's space station after the completion of its T-shaped configuration.

Working closely with the three astronauts are two "magical" robotic arms.

The large robotic arm is called the Tianhe robotic arm, with a carrying capacity of up to 25 tons, making it the "strongman" of China's space station.

The small robotic arm is called "Wentian Robot Arm". Although it has a carrying capacity of only 3 tons, it is very flexible.

The Tianhe robotic arm has two arms, seven movable joints, and a deployed length of 10.2 meters. For such a long robotic arm to move in a zero gravity environment and cover all work areas, the accuracy must also reach within 5 centimeters.

When the R&D team was at a loss, an engineer drew with a compass and was suddenly inspired. Just like a compass, they also use the two hands of a large robotic arm as "feet", serving as fulcrums for each other, alternately switching forward to achieve crawling transfer.

Young Chinese engineers, breaking conventions and innovating, have achieved millimeter level accuracy in the execution of tasks with Tianhe robotic arms, excellently completing the grabbing of Tianzhou cargo hold and in orbit positioning of cabin sections. They are known by netizens as the "versatile diamond".

China's research and development of space robotic arms was 40 years later than that of the international community, but our pace of progress has amazed the world.