The novel, the new and the familiar at UK Robots and Automation Show

A report of exhibits at the Robot and Automation Show held at the NEC, Birmingham at the time of the 25th ISR. It highlights some of the new developments and products on show, leading with the description of a novel robot tube bender being exhibited for the first time. New products range from a 350kg capacity robot developed by Kuka to a high speed SCARA robot from Epson aimed at PCB odd form component placement applications currently dominated by Cartesian robots. Exhibits of software products emphasised the move to low cost PC-based systems aimed at small robot users and systems integrators without the resources of large IT departments, notably from Deneb and BYG Systems.