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Cimcorp and Bosch Rexroth collaborate for lower energy consumption

Jun 23, 2010 Cimcorp Headquarter
General
READING TIME 2 MINS

Cimcorp’s latest innovation, the Cimcorp+ robot, features an advanced control system, developed in partnership with the world-leading controls and drives specialist, Bosch Rexroth.

Cimcorp’s need to develop a brand-new concept for the second generation of the TyrePick robotic system opened up the possibility for co-operation.

According to Dr Steffen Haack, President of Bosch Rexroth AG Electric Drives and Controls Business Unit Bosch Rexroth have found that their innovation is optimized when it’s harnessed with the help of a partner with application-specific knowledge.

“Our ability to customize and optimize the products of market-leading companies who are well established and have detailed know-how in their field provides great business opportunities for both parties. By adopting a partnership approach, we are able to deepen our own understanding of the products needed today and benchmark our visions of the solutions required for tomorrow, helping to ensure maximum return on our investment in R&D.”

The Cimcorp and Bosch Rexroth development teams worked intensively on the Cimcorp+ robot’s new control system to find a solution that offered higher yet genuinely greener performance. The result is a robot that offers 30% higher productivity, yet 40% lower energy consumption. These benefits are partly due to the advanced control system modified specifically for Cimcorp+.

“To achieve lower energy consumption, the new controller regenerates and feeds back braking energy to the power network, thereby decreasing the heat generation and power consumption of the drives. In addition, an innovative feature developed in co-operation with Cimcorp allows the required performance to be achieved with smaller drives,” Dr Haack states.

Commitment to environmental protection

Bosch Rexroth has a strong commitment to environmental protection. Dr Haack even believes that environmental protection is a precondition for profitability.

“Intelligent automation offers fantastic possibilities because it’s clear that environmentally friendly equipment and processes will ultimately have the lowest lifetime costs of ownership. In many cases, the required investment can be kept to a minimum, too. It’s a completely new way of thinking, with machine concepts designed from the viewpoint of saving energy and protecting the environment.”

“The trend of increasing environmental awareness in industry will undoubtedly continue. After all, energy is a competitive factor with growing strategic importance for both equipment manufacturers and end users,” Dr Haack predicts.