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What is Scara Robot?

scara robots

Scara Robot, which stands for Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm, was produced in 1981 by the SCARA Robot Consortium, which was established by 13 companies under the leadership of Professor Hiroshi Makino from Yamanashi University.

Named after its ability to move its arms freely in different axes, Scara Robots are used in the organization, transportation and assembly of products in assembly lines and production processes. SCARA Robot, which can fulfill its task with minimum error in a stable manner, is one of the fastest industrial robots, ensuring high efficiency from industrial automation processes.

Scara Robot Features

Scara Robot, which can be shown among robot automation systems, differs from six-axis industrial robots with four axes. The fact that the Scara Robot has four axes limits its range of motion compared to six-axis robots used in industrial automation and causes it to be unable to be used for certain purposes.

Although it lags behind in terms of movement, with its speed and small size, Scara Robot offers high efficiency compared to six-axis robots used in industrial automation and provides great benefit in the process of moving, correcting and combining products in areas such as assembly lines.

Scara Robot Structures

Some Scara Robots are four-axis and some are three-axis. Scara Robots, which can perform horizontal movements on the X axis, can also overcome vertical movements on the Y axis. With these features, Scara Robots, which can perform assembly line and production processes in the best way, can also tilt slightly in the Z axis. Thanks to this versatile mobility, Scara Robots are frequently used in the transportation, assembly and organization of products.

The structure of an ordinary Scara Robot includes a power supply, a controller, an end element and robot-specific software.

Scara Robot Usage Areas

With a load carrying capacity of up to 20 kilograms, Scara Robot is useful in many areas, from parts assembly and production lines to product packaging in the food industry, from moving and assembling materials in industrial facilities to quality control processes in facilities, from the electrical industry to the assembly of devices in the medical industry.

In general, the usage areas of Scara Robot can be listed as follows:

  • Production and Assembly Lines
  • Packaging and Packing
  • Transport and Consolidation
  • Quality Control
  • Production and Assembly Lines

Thanks to its four-axis structure, Scara Robots can be used in electronic component and PCB assembly, assembly of automobile bodies, engine parts and vehicle interior trims, assembly of white goods and small household appliances, and connection of medical devices.

Packaging and Packaging

Thanks to the multi-axis movement capabilities of Scara Robots, the wholesale placement, arrangement and packaging of retail products in their boxes can be realized very quickly. Therefore, Scara Robots are of great importance for packaging and packaging processes. Scara Robots can also be used in the process of placing labels and barcodes on products.

Handling and Assembling

The proper handling and assembly of materials is of great importance for industrial production processes and assembly lines. Scara Robots come into play at exactly this point, bringing great convenience to the transportation of materials on the production line and adding extra efficiency to industrial automation processes.

Thanks to Scara Robots, palletizing and storage operations can be carried out, as well as boxed products, plastic packaged goods or heavy loads can be lifted and transported. Thus, production facilities can operate in a much more optimized way.

Product Testing and Quality Control

Thanks to Scara Robots, the products that emerge at the end of production processes can be subjected to various tests. Functional tests can be performed on electronic devices, durability tests on mechanical parts, and performance tests on automobile parts. At the same time, it may also be possible to organize the products to be tested with Scara Robots in a certain order.

At the quality control point, Scara Robots can be used to check the size, weight and surface quality of the products. With the cameras and sensor devices in the structure of the robots, it can be understood whether the products comply with international standards.

What are Scara Robot Prices

Many different factors play a role in Scara Robot prices. The brand name is the most important of these factors. More well-known brands can sell their products at higher prices, while relatively lesser-known brands can offer more affordable prices despite offering the same and perhaps superior quality products.

Scara Robots differ in size and carrying capacity. This is another factor that affects the price. The more the carrying capacity and the larger the size of the Scara Robot you set your eyes on, the higher the price will be.

The sensitivity and performance levels of robots also affect prices. While high performance robots with high precision levels are available in the market at more expensive prices, lower performance robots with not very high precision features can be found at relatively low prices.

Benefits of Scara Robot for Industrial Sectors

The main benefit of Scara Robots to industrial sectors is that they increase production efficiency by automating routine repetitive tasks. Since the operations that can be carried out with Scara Robots, which do not require human intervention, can be carried out uninterruptedly and quickly, they contribute greatly to industrial automation production processes. At the same time, as a result of the automation of the assembly line with the use of Scara Robots, employees can be brought to more strategic tasks, which will result in significant savings in employee costs.

Automating the industrial production process will also contribute to keeping the quality of the resulting product at a certain level and reducing the error rate. Thanks to the reprogrammability of Scara Robots, it will also be possible to reorganize production lines.

Pros and Cons of Scara Robot for Industries

The biggest advantage of Scara Robots is that they are more affordable than different types of industrial robots. The main reason for this is that their design is simple. The simplicity of the Scara robot design has also facilitated the production process and this has caused the price of the robot to be more affordable than different industrial robots.

Scara Robots, which can carry up to 20 kilograms of load, are mostly used in production lines for transporting and assembling small parts such as electronic parts. Combining the ability to move at high speed is among the prominent features of Scara Robots compared to different industrial robots.

Despite all their advantages, Scara Robots also have features that can be considered as minus compared to different industrial robots. Limited mobility is one of them. Limited mobility causes the usage areas of Scara Robots to be limited to certain working areas. Therefore, it cannot be said that the four-axis Scara Robot is as flexible and suitable for different conditions as six-axis industrial robots.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Scara Robot

There are many factors to consider when choosing the right Scara Robot for your production process. In this section, we will list the things to consider when choosing a Scara Robot in general and examine them one by one:

  • Budget
  • Privatization
  • Programming
  • Resilience
  • Compatibility
  • Budget

The first thing to consider when choosing a robot is the budget. Since the prices of industrial robots can vary in a wide range, choosing a robot suitable for the budget is of great importance. When choosing the most suitable robot for your budget among the robots whose prices may vary according to the factors mentioned above, you should pay attention to the robot’s tasking area, the tasks it will need to perform and similar parameters.

Customization

Industrial production mechanisms of assembly lines used in facilities may have their own requirements. When choosing a Scara Robot, choosing a robot that will comply with these requirements or that can be customized and made compatible with these requirements will contribute greatly to achieving a sustainable industrial process.

Programming

It will be a great convenience if the robot you choose is easy to program. If you choose a robot with a complex programming structure, you need to find a software developer with the expertise to program this robot. Since this means a waste of time, it increases your cost and reduces your efficiency.

Durability

If one of your priorities when choosing a robot is to carry a load, you need to choose a robot that can carry a high weight load accordingly. Otherwise, you may not get the efficiency you want from the robot you will provide and you may be disappointed.

It is also very important that the robot you choose is compatible with the working area. For example, it is very important that robots that will work in environments such as factories where the temperature can reach high degrees can withstand these temperatures. Therefore, when choosing a robot, you should first consider the working environment and conditions and choose the robot that can withstand these conditions.

Compatibility

The task of the robot and the area where it will work should be taken into account when choosing a Scara Robot. The features of robots that will work in different areas such as assembly, packaging, labeling, material handling and quality control should also differ according to the areas they will work in. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the robot selection compatible with the area to be assigned.

At the same time, parameters related to the area where the robot will be assigned, such as the width of the area where the robot will be used, the height of the assembly line, should also be taken into account and the robot

The Future of Scara Robots

Industrial automation is very important for the future of production facilities. Thanks to Scara Robots, which are of great importance in increasing efficiency in production processes, reducing costs and making processes much easier, it is possible to automate industrial processes.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning, which have become increasingly popular in recent years, will enable Scara Robots to become smarter and more efficient, so that these robots can be used in much more complex processes.

With Industry 4.0, Scara Robots will become more important and will provide a competitive advantage to the organizations that benefit from them by making factory automation much smarter.

Benefit from SCARA Robots with Nilus Engineering

As Nilus Engineering, we offer robot automation systems, robot systems, Scara Robot and Delta Robot solutions and also robot programming support that will benefit you in industrial production facilities.

If you want to benefit from the speed and efficiency of SCARA Robots and bring the blessings of industrial automation to your industrial facilities and get high efficiency especially in pick and place operations, you can contact us and discover the SCARA Robot world with Nilus Engineering difference.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Control the Scara Robot?

The movements of SCARA Robots, one of the fastest among industrial robots, are controlled by two independent motors. Inverse kinematics is used to control X and Y axis movements.

What are Scara Robot Prices?

The prices of Scara Robots can vary greatly depending on their quality and intended use. Please contact us to get the most accurate information.

Is Scara Robot Fast?

Although they are not as fast as Delta Robots, Scara Robots are one of the fastest industrial robots. Thanks to Scara Robots, it is possible to achieve top speed with a high quality guarantee.

What are the Differences Between Scara Robots and Cobots?

The main difference between SCARA Robots and Cobots is that Cobots require human intervention, while SCARA Robots can operate with minimal human intervention. SCARA Robots perform repetitive, routine or potentially dangerous tasks with high speed and success.

What are the Differences Between Scara Robot and Gantry Robot?

Gantry Robots can handle much heavier payloads than SCARA Robots and with these features, they can handle tasks that cannot benefit from SCARA Robots.