Universal Robots releases the next generation of industrial collaborative robots. Why does the UR20 deserve such a title?

Text/Duoyu

In the past month, the industry has been abuzz with the topic of "next generation industrial collaborative robots". The emergence of this hot topic has to start with the birth of the "UR20" industrial collaborative robot product. As a major new product of Denmark's Universal Robots, it took Universal Robots' engineers four years to iterate and upgrade from UR16e to UR20.

As for the "ambition" to seize the future market, Universal Robots officials also said: "UR20 is the first next-generation industrial collaborative robot product launched by Universal Robots. It pushes performance to a new level. It is currently the collaborative robot with the best performance, longest working radius and highest payload. UR20 helps customers perform more new tasks with higher requirements for payload and working radius without sacrificing other performance, ensuring accuracy and reliability."

Gaogong Robot found that the highlight and advantage of UR20 is not just that it has a heavier load than existing collaborative robot products, but that it "redefines collaborative robots."

According to some product parameters provided by Universal Robots, it is not difficult to see that the working radius of UR20 has increased to 1750 mm. At the same time, the joint structure of UR20 has become simpler, and the number of parts has been reduced by about half compared with the e series. When operating in a small space, the joint speed is increased by 65% ​​(depending on the joint size), the average speed is increased by 30%, and the joint torque is increased by 25%. In addition, the main body still continues the characteristics of the UR series, such as light weight, flexibility, and small footprint. The weight (including cable) is 64 kg and the footprint is 245 mm. At this point, Universal Robots' product portfolio can support loads of 3 kg to 20 kg and cover a working radius of 500 mm to 1750 mm, which greatly improves the efficiency of toB-end enterprises operating in small spaces.

Behind these beautiful data iterations, Universal Robots also shows its prediction of the current and future status of the Chinese market in the next three to five years. In recent years, the Chinese robot market has shown a state of rapid development. According to data released by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), global industrial robot sales in 2021 reached a new high of 486,800 units, an increase of 27% over the previous year.

Asia and Australia had the largest growth, reaching 33%, with sales totaling 354,500 units. Americas grew 27%, with sales of 49,400 units. Europe grew 15%, with sales of 78,000 units.

It is worth noting that China was still the world's largest producer and seller of industrial robots last year. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China's industrial robot production reached 366,000 units in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 54.4%; sales were 256,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 48.8%. Perhaps it is precisely based on these predictions that Universal Robots has always regarded the Chinese market as a strategic fortress for its layout.

The labor shortage and aging problems faced by China's manufacturing industry have always troubled companies. How to achieve flexible production without changing the layout of existing production lines has become a common demand of companies.

Since launching its first commercial collaborative robot in 2008, Universal Robots has developed a series of product portfolios corresponding to different working radius and payload, including UR3e, UR5e, UR10e and UR16e. Each model can be seamlessly matched with the rich end effectors, software, accessories and application kits in the UR+ ecosystem, so it can be widely used in various industries and can be easily adjusted and deployed in different tasks. To some extent, Universal Robots provides a suitable solution for Chinese manufacturing companies.

Take the three common application scenarios of UR20: palletizing, machine care and welding as examples:

Palletizing: For palletizing applications, the UR20 can reach onto standard European pallets and can stack up to 2 meters high. Some customers consider using one UR20 for palletizing on two production lines at the same time to maximize the input-output ratio. The UR20's larger working radius and speed are very important for this.

Machine Guarding: The larger working radius allows the UR20 to easily operate around objects such as machine guarding doors. In addition, the UR10e can guard two CNC machine tools, while the UR20 can guard three, which further improves the input-output ratio.

Welding: A larger working radius enables a larger working area and access to larger geometries.

It is precisely these disruptive changes that make the industry more fond of it. Some industry insiders even pointed out that the reason why the load of previous collaborative robots was difficult to increase was, first, safety considerations, and second, the power density of the joints was not high enough. When collaborative robots further improve the load, working radius, and speed on the basis of compactness, modularity, and safety, this means that in terms of performance, the collaborative robot (UR20) is enough to compete with traditional industrial robots with a load of 20kg. From the perspective of appearance design, the configuration of UR20 has abandoned the "modular" advantage that it was proud of in the past, and replaced it with "silky smoothness", which means that there is a bigger market "cake" that attracts Universal Robots to change.

So far, Universal Robots has sold more than 50,000 collaborative robots worldwide. Will the UR20, which has raised public expectations, live up to expectations or even exceed them? The answer will only be revealed after it is delivered for on-site use in 2023.