LG Motion Expand into Collaborative Robotics

A recent industry announcement from LG Motion and HMK is set to make collaborative robots accessible to UK companies for the first time. The partnership will see HMK supplying LG Motion with their Techman range of collaborative robots, or Cobots. The Cobots are a natural addition to LG Motion’s product lines and will help to further cement its position as a leading innovator of motion control solutions for industry and research and development.

The Cobot market is fast growing and is expected to follow a growth trajectory as technology allows the production of Cobots to become more accessible. Current expectations are for growth of more than 40% a year and for the Cobot market to be worth in excess of £3 billion globally by 2020. This bodes well for LG Motion who will be able to develop their market share in both the UK and across Europe.

The Cobot range is built by Techman Robot Inc., a subsidiary of Quanta Storage, and offers a diverse choice of robot depending on the application requirements:

• TM5; reach of 700mm and load capacity of 6kg,
• TM12 and TM14; reach ofup to 1300mm and load capacity of 14kg.

Low voltage versions add to the Cobot’s versatility in mobile applications.

Cobots are designed to take away or reduce the repetitive tasks on the manufacturing production line. Instead of using highly skilled staff to undertake such tasks, the Cobots free them up, allowing them to be utilised in the best possible way. Consequently, the production process speeds up, becomes more accurate and consistent and staff are employed in tasks in which they are trained and best suited. Ultimately, the Cobots offer considerable cost savings across the process as well as increased precision and therefore better results. Gary Livingstone, LG Motion Managing Director, explains:

“Collaborative robots offer a much more flexible approach for some of the automated motion control solutions our customers need. After much research, we partnered with HMK, with the Techman Cobot for three key reasons.

Firstly, HMK has the reputation and scale to support our customers across the UK in this relatively new market. Secondly, we found the Techman Cobot superior in its space. It’s easy to programme and integrate and as they work in a learning environment, we realised some of our customers could significantly increase their agility for production. Finally, the scale of the organisation behind the Techman product gives us the security that this product will have the ongoing support that our customers demand.”

The Techman Cobot is straightforward to operate and accommodate on the production line and is designed with a host of features which integrate easily with industry standard hardware and software. Other attributes include built-in vision for precision positioning, allowing the robot to orientate itself within a 3D space to multiple machine surfaces.

Gary Kitchin, Managing Director of HMK, the UK distributor of the Techman range, is also dedicated to increasing the scope of robots across the UK:

“We have known LG Motion for a number of years and their approach to system integration, along with their industry reputation, fits perfectly with our own approach of providing industry leading products with quality levels of service and support.”

If you would like to know more about the Techman Cobots, you can visit the LG Motion website at https://www.lg-motion.co.uk/products/techman-cobots/