Cognex Corporation enters into OEM agreement with ABB Robotics

Citation

(1999), "Cognex Corporation enters into OEM agreement with ABB Robotics", Industrial Robot, Vol. 26 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1999.04926dab.006

Cognex Corporation enters into OEM agreement with ABB Robotics

Cognex Corporation enters into OEM agreement with ABB Robotics

Keywords Machine vision, Cognex, Robotics

Cognex Corporation, the world's leading supplier of machine vision systems, has announced that it has entered into an OEM agreement with ABB Robotics AB, a global supplier of industrial robots for factory automation. Under the agreement, ABB expects to purchase nearly $1 million of Cognex machine vision systems over the next two years.

ABB will integrate the Cognex machine vision systems into its FlexPicker robot, a new "pick and place" robot designed for light industrial applications such as food and pharmaceutical packaging. The Cognex vision systems, equipped with Cognex's revolutionary PatMax machine vision technology, will be used to guide the FlexPicker to identify items moving on a conveyor belt, and place them in pre-defined positions in blister packs on a parallel conveyor. Cognex's PatMax software enables the FlexPicker to pick and place more than 120 items per minute, and can correctly locate objects at any angle or scale even when they are partially obscured due to parts overlapping on the conveyor. The vision system also detects defective items, and signals the robot to reject them.

"Up to now, it's been quicker and cheaper to perform certain product packaging operations by hand, instead of incurring the high cost of mechanically fixturing parts into place", said Lars Bergstrom, Managing Director of ABB Robotics AB. "The ability of Cognex's PatMax software to locate items at any angle or scale has been key in enabling ABB to design a flexible and affordable 'pick and place' solution for a wide variety of consumer goods applications". "We are delighted to be partnering with the world's leading supplier of industrial robots", said Dr Robert J. Shillman, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman. "Cognex continues to lead the vision industry with technological advances, such as PatMax, which enable manufacturers to use machine vision for an increasing variety of manufacturing processes, thereby reducing production costs while improving manufacturing speed and product quality".

ABB Robotics AB, a Swedish manufacturer of industrial robots, is part of the global ABB Flexible Automation organisation and the multinational ABB Group, a world leader in flexible automation solutions with more than 70,000 robot systems installed worldwide.

For further details contact: Colin Graves, Cognex UK, Chancery House, 199 Silbury Boulevard, Milton Keynes, MK91JL, UK. Tel: +44 (0) (1908) 206000; Fax: +44 (0) (1908) 392463; E-mail: salesuk@cognex.com