Sony UKTEC - first UK owner of ABB's YuMi

Sony UK Technology will use ABB’s dual arm robot solution to pick and place circuit board parts. Primarily used in research and development, YuMi will help Sony UK Technology to better understand the benefits of collaborative robotics in its high volume circuit board application. Kevin Edwards, General Manager and Head of Engineering for Sony UK Technology Centre explains: “The innovative design and forward-thinking capabilities of YuMi will complement our culture of doing something better today than yesterday. We consistently strive to produce the highest quality products with the highest reliability and we pride ourselves on using the latest state of the art manufacturing techniques that enable us to respond quickly to customers’ needs.” YuMi’s design, 2-finger grippers, accurate vision and sensitive force control lends itself well to the proposed application and presents Sony UK TEC with the opportunity to readily adapt YuMi’s programming to match any changes in its assembly process. Kevin Edwards adds: “YuMi creates value-added opportunities for our employees to utilise their skill sets. We look forward to discovering the further benefits that this collaborative robot will bring and appreciate how the local engineering support provided by ABB will allow us to remain competitive within the 3C industry.” Colin Dullaghan, Product Manager at ABB Robotics continues, “YuMi, short for you and me, will open up more opportunities for UK businesses like Sony UK TEC to improve their productivity. Task sharing between humans and robots is great way to accelerate production with lead through programming making the programming stage achievable for staff at all levels in a minimal amount of time.”