Products: Viper bites into linear robots’ vibration

The Viper is Engel’s newest entry into the robot market. In a normal year, said Gerd Liebig, the company’s marketing manager, it ships about 1000 robots with its machines. The Viper is Engel’s new entry in the field and is marketed not only for new presses but also for the replacement market, to include replacement of non-Engel robots.

Engel’s automation experts say the new robots are able to forecast, and then compensate for, the vibration common to linear robots, before the vibration occurs. Rolf Möbus, Engel’s robotics expert, claims the new robots are able to clip about 90% off the vibration common to such robots. “(The Viper) counters the swing (of the robot arm) before it begins,” he explains. According to Engel, the Viper robots are priced about 10% less than its previous linear robot systems. —[email protected]