ABB Robotics launches high‍-‍speed cobot range

ABB Robotics has announced a range of collaborative robots with higher payloads and performance.

The company says the PoWa range of cobots addresses a longstanding gap in the market between traditional cobots, which often lack the speed and payload required for industrial applications, and conventional industrial robots, which are designed for highly specialised, large-scale automation environments, going beyond the needs of many collaborative tasks.

“Cobots are growing significantly faster than traditional industrial robots, driven by demands from both small and midsized companies starting their automation journey as well as large enterprises,” said Andrea Cassoni, Head of Collaborative Robots at ABB Robotics. “These users are seeking higher speeds and payloads, but also greater ease of use and compact designs. Established manufacturers want to automate heavier, fast cycle applications, without the complexity and operational rigidity of traditional industrial robots.

“We are meeting these needs with the global launch of our high-speed PoWa cobot family — a name that symbolises its powerful, industrial-grade performance in a compact collaborative robot form.”

PoWa extends ABB Robotics’ cobots with industrial-grade performance including six different payload categories, from 7 kg to 30 kg, a longer reach and higher arm load and a top speed of up to 5.8 m/s.

Purpose-built for compact environments and suited for applications such as high-speed machine tending, palletising, screwdriving and arc welding, PoWa is designed to enable manufacturers to automate heavier and faster processes, while maintaining the flexibility, ease of use and compact footprint of collaborative robotics.

ABB says PoWa cobots are easy to use, through programmable buttons on the arm-side interface and no-code programming, and are compatible with an extensive ecosystem of third-party accessories. It is claimed that PoWa cobots can be unboxed and operational within an hour.

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