Motoman Picking Robots Align Golf Balls for Precise Tee Placement

Motoman Robotics has been designing material handling robots for many years. As their engineers continue to innovate, their robots become more flexible and are able to perform more tasks. The Motoman picking robots show just that with their versatility. They are able to pick car parts, metal casings and even athletic equipment.

Like many other robotics companies around the globe, Motoman services manufacturers who produce things of all shapes and sizes. One of the manufacturers that came to them had a problem with the productivity of their golf ball line.

The manufacturer wanted to reduce the need for manual labor in their production line, according to the Motoman website. They were also looking to reduce costs by increasing their productivity and improving flexibility, while minimizing downtime. Motoman picking robotic systems seemed like the right way to go.

There were several challenges that Motoman robotic pickers faced during the engineering of the solution. Not only did the automated pickers have to move golf balls from one conveyor to a storage tray on another conveyor, but they also had to have special end-of-arm-tooling. The tooling was not allowed to have a contact area on the ball greater than 0.010 inches.

Motoman ended up using a four-axis picking robot from their HM series, with a controller, teach pendant and custom tooling, along with other features. The gripper was multi-function and able to handle three golf balls at a time, improving productivity significantly and reaching the target production rate of 66 balls per minute.

RobotWorx has several Motoman picking robot models available for sale and customization in our warehouse. These robotic pickers are versatile enough to handle many different tasks without continuous reprogramming, cutting down on costs across the board.