AWE Tuning has announced the recruitment of its new “team member” – an ABB IRB 1600, a 250kg robot with a 6kg payload.

“At AWE Tuning, our mission is to unlock performance, and the IRB 1600 has already begun to be a critical part of our efficiency and quality mandates toward this vision,” said Jason Hertz, AWE Tuning’s production manager. “Our engineering team has done a tremendous job bringing the IRB 1600 online.”

AWE Tuning has conducted time studies using the IRB 1600 and says it has already begun realizing significant efficiency gains and quality improvements.

“Taking a 8-minute milling process that can now run in 6.6 seconds with the IRB 1600 is truly amazing,” said Hertz.

“We are pleased that AWE Tuning chose ABB Robotics to help achieve such significant production improvements. We know that AWE Tuning is proud to manufacture their exhaust systems in America, and we enthusiastically support that effort,” said John Bubnikovich, vice president, sales and marketing, ABB Robotics North America.

At AWE, the IRB 1600’s cell is designed to cut complex 3-D shapes on mandrel-bent stainless steel tubing as well as flat sheet/plate metal, offering more engineering freedom for innovative designs. The freedom of a 6-axis plasma cutter allows the aforementioned material to be cut to AWE Tuning’s exact specifications, thus providing more accuracy. The specialized Hypertherm system and accompanying torch that ABBi wields, the cut quality is approaching that of a laser, providing better repeatability. AWE Tuning says it can prototype and iterate faster than ever before.

“Needless to say, this is just another leap forward in AWE Tuning’s commitment to quality, speed and customer satisfaction,” concluded Hertz.

Click here to watch a video of AWE’s robot in action.