Plast 2018 has been chosen by Star Automation Europe, as they often did in the past, to launch several novelties, and in particular, the new ZXW-VI robots series. The two ZXW-1000VI and ZXW-1600VI models receive the baton of Fx series, introducing numerous enhancements, aiming above all to operation speed.

Being loyal to its 2018 motto, “Speed & Precision”, Star succeeded in boosting the already high level of performance of Fx series, with a speed increase higher than 10% for both the machines, when compared to their predecessors. The technical new features include strengthened guides, modified belts and stronger motors, though maintaining a special attention to design, aligning the new models’ appearance to that of XW-VI series.

Design is obviously not the only thing associating XW-VI and ZXW-VI series: the new high-speed robots are as well as a standard supplied with STEC-520 controller, which possesses extraordinary potentiality regarding Industry 4.0, such as remote monitoring, production control, and integration inside the IMM display.

Alongside its new models, the company is also exhibiting two models from its XW-VI series, which has now been well-known for almost three years. The two machines will be a XW-1000VI, the best-selling model in the whole product range, and a XW-1800MVI, the giant of this series, for the first time shown in an international exhibition and particularly suited for big size moulded products in the automotive and electrical appliances sectors.

Visitors of recent exhibitions have surely noticed the attention Star is paying in order to offer to its users a product which is absolutely respondent to most modern standards of industry digitalisation, and Plast is the perfect occasion to move a further step towards the targets which the most demanding users intend to reach as far as technology is concerned.

Solutions for Industry 4.0

At Plast 2018, Star Automation Europe will move a further step towards the digitalisation requirements of the industrial production, which its most recent products are already designed to meet.

Smart Production will be embodied in a new software: SF-NET, regarding which demonstrations will be held at the fair. This system allows viewing all the information related to production which are contained inside the robot’s controller, thanks to their upload to a server connected to the company network. Viewable production-related information kinds are for example production ratio, robot status, or alarm history. When this kind of information gets refreshed inside the controller, or after a time defined by the user, data get written in dedicated CSV files. Subsequently, these CSV files are loaded through FTP to the directory selected in the server. The viewing of this information is possible on a dedicated web page, thus making the correct functioning of the software independent from the operative system or the browser the user chooses to use.

A further innovation will be introduced at Plast 2018 also regarding the so-called Smart Service: from the beginning of 2018, in fact, all interventions of the Star Automation Europe technical service staff by customers, be they installations or maintenance activities, are organised through a new application: Gol. This allows the customer service to digitally organise all information, and also enables the customers to log in on a personal web page, where they will be able not only to check their service history, but also to directly ask for help or to be guided towards the autonomous individuation of the cause of the problem and its solution.

Ten years of Eins

Starting from the end of 2017, Star has been celebrating the tenth anniversary of Eins, its components for the realisation of EOATs for both cartesian and anthropomorphic robots. The four robots shown at Plast 2018 will perform automatic EOAT changes thanks to OX series tool changer system: all its models will be on show, thus allowing visitors to verify the incredible lightness which characterises them, and how these devices put only a minimum weight on the robots’ wrist. Thanks to the cooperation with the Japanese group Vessel, several nippers and mini-nippers for EOAT will also be shown. Finally, another highlight will be represented by the new version of the Eins portal, configured like a true e-commerce website, where it is possible to purchase Eins products.