Is It a Robot?

Telling people what I do is always tricky..

"FlexArm? What's that?"

Its a mechanical arm to tap holes perfectly perpendicular. It's awesome. They're great for increasing accuracy and speed if you are currently hand tapping. If you are tapping in a CNC machine, then it can speed up production by taking the tapping operation offline, and reducing the risk of breaking taps in the machine and scrapping parts."

"so... it's a robot?"

"... no... just.. we make machine tools. Ok?"

READY TaskMate R5 is adding even more confusion to that conversation by making a robot to run a FlexArm. Task mate is a super cool, very new company filling a niche in the automation market: easily customizable automated manufacturing robots, available for a short term lease.

"When Ford deploys a bunch of robots to make a new car, and it takes a year to set up the factory, they are fine with that because they're going to make that car for 10 years and amortize the effort," says Guerin (CTO) . "Drew might have a job that takes two weeks. We were thinking, how do you have an industrial robot that helps in that situation?"

Ready Robotics' solution is a robotic arm that can be swiftly programmed to perform new tasks and is packaged with an assortment of grippers, pneumatic air tools, and other peripherals that transform it into a kind of automated Swiss Army knife. The robot, which comes with a stand, can free up workers by operating existing tools such as lathes, mills, and band saws, or FlexArm tapping arms.

"The real American factory has runs of five and then 300 and then 50 and then 600--peanut runs," says Greenblatt (industrial advisor). "You have to be nimble, adaptable, constantly changing over and making new fixtures."

"This is how small companies are going to automate," says Greenblatt. "This is how we will revolutionize American industry."

Thanks to Ready Robots for teaching this old dog some new tricks. Now when people ask me if it's a robot..

I can say "Well... if you add a task mate it is! "