Simulation environments are usually built up during the design process for a facility to establish access and reachability. MetroCAD take these studies once the design phase is complete and using our experienced online engineers develop the optimum robot paths for both cycle time and interraction with other equipment in their workspace. This process is known as Offline programming or OLP

Production environments are becoming more constrained in many ways, the physical space available, the time available to produce products and the time available to install new or modify production equipment. 

MetroCAD have the techniques to  keep all of the above to a minimum - Virtual Commissioning.

We create the robot motion using OLP but the robots have to interact with tooling and any number of other robots, also moving at high speed. This interraction is controlled by a computer known as a PLC, Virtual Commissioning enables a PLC to commission its programs along with the requisite logic in the robot's controllers. An additional unquantifiable benefit of this process is the reduction of physical collissions during commissioning. 

The entire aim of this process is to reduce factory floor time to an absolute minimum, reducing supporting trades cover requirements and increasing time for production - Reducing lost time costs and increasing production.

Industrial robots are unintelligent mechanical arms, tied together with joints that are moved by motors, have their positions read by encoders and all monitored and controlled by a dedicated controller. Each robot manufacturer, beit Kuka, ABB, Fanuc, Comau, etc has their own style of language they use but robot motion is always referenced to a datum. MetroCAD use 3D Laser Tracker technology to define these datum's in each robot. 

Online robot programming is a highly skilled, time consuming and expensive task undertaken on a factory floor with a high risk of physical damage to equipment and reputation.

These days it is often a function of commissioning OLP generated programs created by a third party, that often have to be recreated due to any number of variables... unserviceable OLP, incorrect alignment, incorrect process, etc making many of the benefits of OLP innefective leaving the programmer to justify the additional hours required to complete their task.

MetroCAD are able to supply programmers on a consultant basis but would not offer a contract turnkey price when others are responsible for the variables.

This is why MetroCAD offer a total solution, will price that competetively to include all variables and accept responsibility for any issues in that instance.

Online commissioning is the age old method of bringing all of the constituant parts of a production line to work as one... the safety systems, the fixtures, the elctrical communications, the robots and usually all monitored and controlled by a PLC/SPS controller. When offline commissioning has not been used this is a very time consuming task and requires several disciplines to be in position to resolve issues and answer questions.