Industry 4.0 is in full swing in manufacturing plants across the globe. IoT, AI, Automation, and Robotics is the wave of the future for industrial manufacturing. Many companies have integrated robotics into their processes, working together with humans to interlink tasks. Robots in industrial manufacturing can be a great benefit, but they need protection from the extreme elements within manufacturing plants that cause downtime or possibly destroy the internal mechanics of a robot. 

What is a Thermal Robot Protection Cover?
Automation has been a key performance driver in virtually all industries. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the assembly line where complex yet repetitive tasks have been delegated to robotic systems. You can largely trace the genesis of industrial robots to the 1960s and the early days of Silicon Valley when high-performance semiconductors and the birth of the integrated circuit caused a boom in computer engineering.

Deploying robots in manufacturing creates skilled jobs, it saves time and menial labor costs, increases throughput, and promotes greater occupational health and safety by removing human workers from harsh operating environments. Yet they represent a significant upfront investment that will only pay itself back if the robotic system is maintained and protected throughout its entire service life. Robot protection covers are designed for this very purpose.

Why Use a Robot Protection Cover?

As mentioned, robots are used in heavy industrial environments such as aluminum smelters, foundries, petrochemical plants, steel mills, and refineries. Each of these workplaces is associated with certain hazards that can be detrimental to human health. Yet they can also damage valuable equipment over time, or – in extreme events – within mere moments.

To remain effective, robotics must weather extreme conditions without corroding or degrading, and be resistant to dust, chemicals, moisture, blast media, and temperature extremes. Robot protection covers are intended as a barrier to these extreme conditions, preventing corrosion or degradation due to adverse environmental conditions and temperatures. By covering critical parts of your robotic system, you can enable it to operate in a wider range of conditions thus perform better over the entirety of its operational life cycle. It is important to assess your application area carefully to ensure that your intended fabric/textile offers the right level of resistance, however. 

Advantages of Robot Covers

• Protect the investment of robots and accessories
• Reduce maintenance costs and downtime
• Increases automation uptime of the robot

Robot covers are tailored protection for your robot, and can be supplied as full robot covers, jackets, and sleeves to protect end-of-arm tooling.  Your robot protection cover may be waterproof, preventing moisture ingress and subsequent electrical failure, but how well does it fare with abrasion? High-temperature? Repetitive motion? These are we questions we ask when designing robot covers.

THERMOPAK® Robot Protection Covers

At Mid-Mountain, we engineer a range of high-performance robot protection covers designed to withstand the broadest possible range of adverse effects. One of our leading solutions is the THERMOPAK^® Robot Protection Cover fabricated from ARMATEX^® SBN 13-602 Robotex, a high-strength, high-temperature resistant fabric. This cover can fully encapsulate robots within a durable, flexible skin that is flame retardant, corrosion resistant, and electrically insulating. In addition, ARMATEX^® SBN 13-602 Robotex has very high flexural failure resistance to protect robots with a lot of movement.  We engineer THERMOPAK® Robot Protection Covers as a custom solution to ensure we can deliver a best-fit protection system for specific applications.  Extra protection can be added to any robot cover for transformative robots that kneel as well as stand.

Watch>>>>Company Overview Mid Mountain Materials

Mid-Mountain Materials
Mid-Mountain Materials, Inc is an insulation manufacturer providing heat resistant fabrics and thermal insulation that provide environmental protection, emissions control, and energy conservation.
We use a wide range of different materials for our heat-resistant fabrics to ensure we can provide a cost-effective solution for many different applications, including aerospace, robotics, and welding. 
Our products can provide thermal insulation at temperatures of up to 5000oF, and can also provide protection against chemicals, molten splash, and abrasion.