Flexxbotics robot compatibility with Makino technology

Flexxbotics, delivering workcell digitalization for robot-driven manufacturing, announced robot machine tending connectivity compatible with the full line of Makino machine tools including horizontal 4-axis and 5-axis, vertical 3-axis and 5-axis, graphite machining centers, wire EDM, sinker EDM, EDM hole drilling, and grinding.

Flexxbotics’ unique FlexxCORE technology enables robots to securely connect and communicate with Makino machinery in the smart factory to provide more powerful, flexible and open robot connectivity than previously possible. Flexxbotics is compatible with the advanced Makino Pro6 CNC Control and Makino’s Hyper-i control system. 

“One of the most common reasons CNC automation projects fail is when the robots are unable to communicate with the machines they are tending, which causes quality issues and potential downtime issues impacting efficiency gains,” said Tyler Modelski, Co-founder & CTO of Flexxbotics. “We understand the complexities of robot-machine communication and control which is why we built such a comprehensive solution to give the robots the ability to optimize each machine’s operation.”

In addition to compatibility with Makino’s Pro6 and Hyper-i controls 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 MELSEC, Profibus/Profinet and other proprietary controllers and interfacing protocols.

Flexxbotics workcell digitalization 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 synchronization.

A full set of bidirectional communication, transform and routing capabilities are available in Flexxbotics for the robots and Makino 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.

“With Flexxbotics the robots do much more than simply talking to the machinery, the robots command and control the machines for closed-loop quality and continuous operations,” said Tyler Bouchard, Co-founder & CEO of Flexxbotics. “We believe that robotics will play the central role in Industry 4.0 with the emergence of robot-driven manufacturing.”