MOTOMAN EPX1250 painting robot and ATEX applications: Small, blue, strong

Photo by Motoman

YASKAWA is expanding the range of high-performance painting robots to include the compact MOTOMAN EPX1250. With a working range of 1,250 mm, this new ro-bot has been developed for smaller applications, but can also as be used as an addition to existing systems.

With its compact design, the MOTOMAN EPX1250 delivers the advantages of robotic painting for small batch sizes and production areas with limited space. Companies that still paint manually or are using relatively inflexible reciprocators can therefore benefit from greater flexibility, continuous production flow and achieve traceable processes. This not only provides increased efficiency, but also meets important conditions for ISO certification.

Broad range of applications
The six-axis robot has a payload capacity of 6 kg. With a repeatability of +/- 0.5 mm, it is suitable for a wide range of painting tasks in general industry as well as other sectors. The MOTOMAN EPX1250 truly excels when painting small work pieces, particularly those with relatively flat geometries. The applications range from metal and plastic to wooden surfaces. Depending on the paint dispensing unit or gun used, all types of powder and liquid coatings can be processed.
The newly-developed compact robot also offers particular advantages in combination with other robots or as an addition to existing systems: for example, if a workpiece is too large for a single robot, the comparatively small MOTOMAN EPX1250 can work on specific areas thus improving cycle times by working in harmony with the other painting robot.

The MOTOMAN EPX series
Like all models in the EPX series, the new MOTOMAN EPX1250 is ATEX-certified. The housing and end-effector are designed in such a way that electrical and mechanical ignition sources are reliably eliminated, which means that the robot can be used in potentially explosive environments. Not only is this an advantage in painting applications, but also in many other applications that require ATEX certification.
Another major benefit is the fact that the series of MOTOMAN EPX robots are controlled from the NX100 generation of robot controller. They can be programmed in a user-friendly method using a teach pendant. Programming can also be carried out offline with MOTOSim or another software package whilst offline-online combinations are also possible. Furthermore, recurring tasks can be simplified by using macros.

Summary
With its compact design, the MOTOMAN EPX1250 expands the existing range of painting robots from YASKAWA to include a solution that is ideally suited to smaller applications or as an addition to existing systems. This opens up interesting new possibilities in terms of efficiency and quality, particularly for those companies that were previously unable to consider robotic painting.

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