Comau unveils newest robot: Racer 3

Racer3 combines field-proven technology and enhanced dexterity with a keen focus on safety, design and product aesthetics. Intended for general industry use, including Food & Beverage, Electronics, Plastics, Metalworking and more, Racer3 features a compact design, aluminium construction, exceptional stability and a user-friendly control interface. The efficient manipulation and assembly system can easily adapt to any environment, allowing virtually any SME to increase productivity and reduces overall costs by automating industrial applications with accuracy, precision and intelligence.

With a streamlined design and brushed metal exterior, the new robot combines beauty and speed together with absolute precision and repeatability. Primary applications include assembly, material handling, machine tending, dispensing and Pick & Place.

Industrial robots, with payloads exceeding 30 to 100kg, are often too large and too expensive for general industry applications. These robots tend to have a reach of around 2m, significant payload potential and sophisticated controllers. Compact robots are easier to install and easier to use, but may lack the stability and precision of their larger counterparts, or are too heavy to sit on a counter-top or be moved with ease. Leveraging its longstanding experience in the automotive industry, where accuracy and reliability are non-negotiable, Comau has designed a lightweight, compact and economical robot that features the same award-winning speed, precision and repeatability of its renowned industrial robots.

The new Racer3 is designed to allow SMEs all over the world to cost-effectively automate their operations, which in turn can help reduce overall operating expenses. This is particularly important in emerging countries that rely on low cost manufacturing as a source of economic growth and development.

Racer3 is a natural contortionist that can bend like a snake until it assumes the shape of a scissor, surpassing the flange at axis 1. Or, it can close like a book, bringing the wrist toward the body in order to rotate the axis 1 at maximum speed while avoiding collisions with anything in the surrounding space.

Its compact symmetry balances fluidity and motion that emulates nature to the fullest, and the length of almost 1:1 between the arm and forearm stimulates the dynamism of lines and the natural inclination to go forward.

High-performance design

Racer3 unites aesthetic innovation with a high-performance design built for results. With a cycle time of less than 0.36s for 1kg Pick & Place cycle, the rigid construction and very stable base ensure higher precision and repeatability.

At less than 30kg, its complete versatility in terms of mounting positions - floor, ceiling, wall, sloped 0-90 degrees - means that that Racer3 can be transported and installed almost anywhere. Even the new brushed aluminium colour scheme sets Racer3 apart from the trustworthy red Comau giants that have served the automotive industry for close to 40 years.

Three driving objectives characterised the design process: the new Racer3 would be immediately recognisable as a Comau Racer robot; it would be half the size of the other Racer models without sacrificing speed or stability; and it would feature an optimal synergy between aesthetics and performance with an absolute attention to details.

Racer3 has infinite anchoring positions and a wide and very flexible work area. The dual objective of a wider work area combined with the stability required for unwavering precision and repeatability has been realised through the highly curved, conjugate architecture of the arm.

The special design of the arm, combined with the 50mm gauge on axis 2 and axis 3, significantly increases the workspace, while Racer3's sleek lines and hollow body construction optimises the fluid transition of cables.

Racer3 represents a concrete example of the intensive R&D that has helped Comau become a leader in the industry. Comau's ongoing commitment to innovation continues to push the company forward, both in terms of new technology developments and new market sectors.

Technical specifications

tstart{c,80%}

thead{Comau|Racer3}

tdata{Number of degrees of freedom|6}

tdata{Payload (kg)|3}

tdata{Allowable torque on Ax 5 (Nm)|7.4}

tdata{Allowable Torque on Ax 6 (Nm)|4.4}

tdata{Reach (mm)|630}

tdata{Repeatability (+/-) (mm)|0.02}

tdata{Mass (kg)|30}

tdata{Speed on AX1 ( °/s)|450}

tdata{Speed on AX2 ( °/s)|450}

tdata{Speed on AX3 ( °/s)|500}

tdata{Speed on AX4 ( °/s)|600}

tdata{Speed on AX5 ( °/s)|600}

tdata{Speed on AX6 ( °/s)|900}

tend{}

To learn more about the Racer3 high-speed 6-axis articulated robot, please visit www.comau.com.