Guyson Corporation has recently signed a Motoman Select Solution Provider Agreement and will integrate Motoman robots into Guyson robotic blast systems. Additionally, Guyson and Motoman will develop new robotic surface treatment applications using certain next-generation robots available exclusively from Motoman.
Steve Byrnes, President of Guyson Corporation, commented on the significance of the new agreement during a briefing of the engineering and manufacturing teams at the Guyson factory in Saratoga Springs, New York.
“This partnership will enable us to cater to the robotic blasting requirements of Guyson customers who use Motoman robots elsewhere in their operations and those who may have a strong preference for this popular brand. As a customer-centered machine builder, Guyson will now offer an expanded robotics portfolio that exceeds that of any other blast equipment supplier or third-party integrator,” Byrnes explained.
Motoman, Inc., West Carrollton, OH is a subsidiary company of Yaskawa Electric Corporation, a world leader in robotics. Founded in 1989, Motoman has grown to be the second largest robotics company in the Americas with more than 29,000 robots installed and a product line that includes more than 175 distinct robot models.
The students designed and built a robot called 
Langdon came to Guyson with a wealth of experience, particularly in the construction trades, including carpentry, painting, plumbing, masonry and equipment operation. Over the course of his years with the company in facilities and grounds maintenance, he was called upon to apply just about all of those diverse skills.
The RB-9 machine pictured above incorporates a special safety interlock system designed to comply with the purchaser’s internal machine engineering specifications for robotic equipment. A hand-held wand, a foot pedal and door locks on the blast cabinet and robot cage were integrated by Guyson controls engineers in response to the individual customer’s requirements.
ROBOTIC BLAST MACHINE HAS TRANSFER CART
Guyson Corporation has introduced a robotic blasting system that incorporates a component-manipulating 6-axis robot and a shuttle transfer cart to fully automate processing of tray-loads of components. The new Model RB-TRR-900 is designed for precise surface preparation, shot peening and cosmetic finishing operations.
Guyson RB-TRR-900 has a shuttle cart to transfer a tray of components in and out of the blast chamber, combining the precision and repeatability of robotic blasting with the efficiency of batch treatment.
The robotic blast machine is provided with a single suction-blast gun or pressure-blast nozzle that is rigidly bracketed in a fixed position inside the 42 x 42 x 42-inch blast chamber. Guide rails form a track extension into an antechamber on one side of the blast cabinet. Rolling on the track, the transfer cart bearing a tray full of components is moved in and out of the blast enclosure by a precision linear actuator, and a pneumatically actuated vertical sliding door closes to isolate the load/unload station from the blasting zone.
A Fanuc M-10iA robot with a custom-engineered pneumatic gripper serves as a component handler in the automated blasting system, grasping and removing a part from the tray, presenting the component to the blast, then replacing the finished work piece. A tailored skirt seals the cabinet wall and protects the robot from the potentially abrasive environment of the blast chamber. Fanuc Robotics offers larger and smaller 6-axis robots that can be integrated in the RB-TRR-900, should a different payload or reach be required.
To blast a production lot of parts, a tray of oriented components, typically 6 to 24 in number, is placed on the transfer cart, the sliding load door is closed and a part identification number is entered or selected at the touch-screen control panel. Alternatively, component recognition features are available, including a bar code reader, to positively identify the work and prompt the recall of the correct motion program and blasting process recipe, with automatically controlled parameters such as blast pressure, media flow rate and the duration of the blast and blow-off cycles. While the robotic blast system methodically and identically repeats the surface treatment on each of the components in the batch, the human operator is freed for an extended period to perform other work.
The robotic component manipulator constantly and accurately maintains the specified blast angle, nozzle offset and surface speed, even when following the contours of complex-shaped aerospace or medical parts, which makes it possible to produce extremely consistent surface conditions and eliminate non-conformities in finish quality.
Prospective users of automated and robotic blasting systems are invited to submit sample components for free laboratory testing and application engineering evaluation at Guyson’s factory in northeastern New York State.