Toshiba Machine has announced the launch of two new collaborative robots at the International Robot Exhibition (IREX) — the world’s leading robot show, held at the Tokyo Big Sight, Japan.

Expanding on the company’s extensive range of industrial robots, the announcement was supported by the company’s official robot distributor for EMEA and America, TM Robotics. Toshiba Machine has been an established producer of high-quality industrial robots for over two decades.

The newly announced collaborative robots, encompassing a humanoid and SCARA version, are the first machines of their kind from the Japanese manufacturer. Toshiba Machine has previously prioritized the manufacture of industrial robot models such as six-axis, SCARA and Cartesian.

 Toshiba Machine’s humanoid cobot was demonstrated at IREX in a live parts assembly demonstration. Boasting a 6 kg maximum payload for each arm or 10 kg when used in combination, the humanoid cobot has been developed to meet demand for human-machine collaboration in parts assembly and inspection processes. 

The SCARA model, which is also collaborative, expands on Toshiba Machine’s established expertise in manufacturing traditional SCARA robots. At IREX, the SCARA display demonstrated how a cobot can be used in delicate electronics handling and packaging applications — a task usually limited to highly accurate industrial machines. Also featuring two arms, the SCARA robot is suited to fast-paced handling applications.

As collaborative robots, both models will be deployable alongside human workers, allowing manufacturers to benefit from a combination of automated and manual processes. The cobots will be available with brand new, state-of-the-art robotic vision systems. Toshiba Machine has been developing its new collaborative machines for several years,” explained Nigel Smith, president and CEO of TM Robotics. “IREX provides an ideal opportunity to showcase the impressive engineering behind these two models — as well as providing visitors with live demonstrations of how these machines operate. Our collaborative offering has been a long time coming, but it’s certainly worth the wait.” The new robot launches mark the beginning of a new era for Toshiba Machine and its industrial robot division. From April 1, 2020, the company will return to its original name of Shibaura Machine. The name change represents a formal separation from Toshiba Corporation, but will have no impact on the new product releases that have been developed at the company’s Japanese base.

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