AUTOMATION
26 » SEPTEMBER 2020 » WWW.MADEIN.IE
COSMETIC COBOTS
An autonomous, modular robot
platform stands is helping
accelerate chemical balance
testing in shampoo.
The use of industrial robots
in the UK is the same level
as the global average, shown
by the figure of 85 robots
per 10,000 workers in the
manufacturing sector in 2017. Europe
has the highest regional density, with 106
industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing
employees, Germany leads the pack,
followed by Sweden, Denmark, Belgium
and Italy, who were all in the global top
10 in the 2018 figures released by the
International Federation of Robotics.1
Although these figures show that the UK
is behind much of Europe in the adoption
of this key digital technology,
Middlesbrough-based Applied Scientific
Technologies believes there is huge
potential for collaborative industrial robots,
a movement being driven by the evolution
of Industry 4.0 and sister initiatives such as
Laboratory 4.0.
The company recently deployed its first
prototype Siemens-enabled modular robot,
the Hyve, into the cosmetics industry. “The
speed of design, development and
deployment into this market could not have
been possible without the industry
standard connectivity and automation tools
provided by Siemens. Siemens tools and
interfaces lie at the heart of our platform
and give the foundation upon which we can
build customer processes and applications
seamlessly and quickly into The Hyve
platform,” said Garry Lofthouse, Director
of Applied Integration UK Ltd.
Applied Scientific Technologies (AST)
Ltd., a sister company to Applied
Integration UK, Ltd., was established to
develop completely new applications for
the robot platform. Since the launch of
Hyve, the company has been inundated
with potential applications and customers
looking to exploit the collaborative nature
of the system as part of their Industry 4.0
strategies and AST fully expect to deploy
multiple Hyve’ robot platforms in 2020.
“In 2017, we did our research and set up
AST to serve what we believe has huge
potential for robotics,” added Lofthouse.
“Being in the integration market and a
Siemens Solution Partner for over 15 years,
we already had the knowhow and
technology to develop a new product to
serve the manufacturing sector.
/WWW.MADEIN.IE