ABB expands modular industrial robot product line to create highly flexible and customized production

As the wave of automation continues to advance, the demand for robots in factory production lines is increasing day by day. In recent years, ABB, a global robot giant, has kept up with the pulse of the market and launched a series of innovative products. Recently, ABB Robotics has expanded its product lineup of modular industrial robot arms and launched two robots, IRB 7710 and IRB 7720, which offer 16 new variants designed for a variety of applications.

Modular Design

Traditional industrial robots are usually of a single design and cannot meet the differentiated needs of different application scenarios. ABB's modular robots break this constraint, and through the standardized and modular design of components such as the base, lower arm, upper arm and wrist, dozens of different models and specifications can be easily assembled.

All models share the same footprint and interface specifications, greatly simplifying the installation and commissioning process and improving production flexibility. Factories can freely select the most suitable model according to different payload requirements. ABB's modular series can cover a payload range of 70 kg to 620 kg, with a total of 46 variants available, enough to meet the needs of most scenarios.

This advanced modular design concept not only helps reduce robot costs and shorten delivery cycles, but also allows production lines to efficiently switch robot models, enabling rapid product switching and small-batch customized production. When faced with multi-variety small-batch orders, the factory does not need to repeatedly purchase new robots, but only needs to replace some components, which greatly improves asset utilization and avoids the waste of repeated investment.

Accurate and efficient

ABB's newly launched IRB 7710 and IRB 7720 large modular robots have a path accuracy of up to 0.6 mm and a maximum operating speed of up to 1,600 mm/s, making them the leaders in accuracy and speed among similar products. This is crucial for high-precision processing links, such as automotive stamping, casting palletizing, and precision machining, and can significantly improve production efficiency and product consistency.

It is worth mentioning that ABB modular robots all adopt mechatronics design, which tightly integrates control system, motor and sensor , greatly simplifies wiring and installation, and improves reliability. Compared with traditional wired control, this design enables robots to achieve more accurate and smooth motion control, ensuring the precision of various complex processing processes.

Wide range of applications

ABB's modular robot series product lineup is deep and can meet the different needs of various fields in the manufacturing industry. According to ABB's forecast, the new models may be mainly used in industries such as automotive OEM and Tier 1 suppliers, logistics, foundry, machinery manufacturing, construction and agriculture.

Taking the automotive manufacturing industry as an example, there are many processes on the automotive production line, such as stamping automation, body welding, battery structure assembly and final assembly, which have different requirements for the payload and precision of the robot. ABB's modular robot series can be tailored to create the ideal configuration according to these different scenarios.

In addition, ABB modular robots can be widely used in general heavy-duty handling scenarios, such as steel smelting, machine tool processing, etc. They can also be used in high-precision processing fields, such as electronic circuit board welding and medical equipment precision assembly, playing an irreplaceable role.

Marc Segura, President of ABB’s Robotics division, said: “We have designed our large robotics portfolio to be modular, enabling them to choose the best robot and variant to enable them to run their operations efficiently. With the most comprehensive mechatronics platform, industrial robots, collaborative robots and AMR portfolio on the market, the latest robots further extend our portfolio, helping our customers address workforce shortages and ensuring they remain competitive while operating in a sustainable way.”