Flexxbotics’ compatibility with HURCO CNC machines

Flexxbotics, delivering workcell digitalisation for robot-driven manufacturing, has announced robot machine tending connectivity compatible with the full line of HURCO machinery, including 5-axis machining centres, 3-axis machining centres, portal machining centres, horizontal machining centres and turning centres.

With Flexxbotics, next generation machining environments using robotics with HURCO equipment achieve higher yields, greater throughput and increased profit per part.

Flexxbotics’ patent-pending FlexxCORE technology enables robots to securely connect and communicate with HURCO machinery in the smart factory to provide more powerful, flexible and open robot connectivity than previously possible. Flexxbotics is compatible with HURCO’s MAX5 CNC control system used on HURCO machines including the TM/X Series and VM/X Series.

“We understand the complexities of robot-machine communications, and that when robots are unable to communicate with the CNC machines they are tending quality issues occur and the efficiency gains are minimal,” said Tyler Modelski, co-founder and CTO of Flexxbotics. “That’s why Flexxbotics’ powerful capabilities give the robots the ability to optimise the operation of each machine.”

In addition to compatibility with HURCO MAX5 CNC control, Flexxbotics is compatible with a wide range of open standard protocols including OPC/UA, MTConnect, Modbus-TCP, TCP/IP, Ethernet/IP, and DeviceNet along with FOCAS2/FOCAS, MELSEC, Profibus/Profinet and other proprietary controllers and interfacing protocols.

Flexxbotics workcell digitalisation is the backbone of the Smart Factory, delivering robot-driven manufacturing at scale with autonomous process control for advanced machining operations. Flexxbotics’ SaaS/hybrid architecture also runs both online and offline so production continues with or without internet access, and Flexxbotics works with existing business systems such as CAD/CAM, SCADA/HMI, IIoT, MES, ERP, PLM and others for complete synchronisation.

A full set of bidirectional communication, transform and routing capabilities are available in Flexxbotics for the robots and HURCO machinery that are connected including loading PLC programs, sending instructions, updating parameters and status awareness depending on the equipment’s capabilities so the robots drive the machines in the smart factory.

“We believe that the robots must not only communicate with the machinery in the smart factory, the robots must control and command the machines for maximum efficiency and production optimisation,” said Tyler Bouchard, co-founder and CEO of Flexxbotics. “What we’re doing with the Flexxbotics solution is enabling next generation machining operations to embrace robot-driven manufacturing at scale.”