Quality inspection

Zero compromises. Increase your consistency and maintain high levels of product quality with collaborative robots (cobots) through safer, faster, and more precise inspections. Standardize procedures and streamline workflows with affordable and agile robot arms.

Improving quality assurance with cobots

Quality inspection stands as the vigilant guardian of a company’s reputation, ensuring only the finest products reach consumers. From basic visual checks to high-tech thermal imaging, chemical analysis, and rigorous destructive testing, quality inspection is as versatile as the products it safeguards. Each process combines multiple techniques, forming a workflow that catches inconsistencies before they become costly errors.

Without robust quality control, manufacturers risk everything from minor customer dissatisfaction to severe health and safety implications, opening doors to increased scrap, production delays, regulatory penalties, and brand damage. Achieving consistency in quality inspection is critical, yet nearly impossible to maintain manually. Compact, safe, and exceptionally precise, cobots present an ideal solution—offering repeatable, versatile precision across a variety of quality inspection tasks without the need for costly, cumbersome traditional robotics.

Quality inspection cobots in action

Safer inspections

Olympus, a Japan-based expert in advanced imaging and testing faced a challenge: maintaining the safety and accuracy of their non-destructive testing (NDT) inspections across diverse industries, while managing the strain and fatigue experienced by operators performing repetitive, physically demanding tasks. With the deployment of UR cobots, operators are now free from ergonomically challenging duties and can focus on high-value activities like optimizing inspection methods and analyzing data.

Inspect faster, increase revenue

3D Infotech, a leader in automated metrology, encountered significant scalability challenges due to long development cycles and high customization demands. By integrating UR cobots into their product line, the company elevated inspection speeds by up to 83% while enhancing precision. This transformation also enabled them to reduce customer costs by as much as 80%, resulting in an impressive 230% increase in revenue.

Streamline workflows

New Scale Robotics' Q-Span® Workstation, powered by the UR3 cobot, has emerged as an innovative solution for streamlining in-process measurement at OptiPro Systems, a precision optics manufacturer. This reliable, turnkey system significantly reduces scrap by identifying out-of-tolerance issues early on and enables unmanned operations—an essential capability during periods of workforce reduction.

Precision

To achieve consistent, accurate quality inspection, employees must sustain intense focus, as even slight variations in measurements can affect outcomes. This level of precision is challenging to maintain manually, with repetitive tasks leading to fatigue, slower processes, and ultimately, human error and inefficiency. Some parts are particularly complex to examine, and tiny or hidden defects are easily overlooked during manual inspection.

Quality

Universal Robots' cobot arms empower companies to automate virtually any manual quality inspection task without the typical costs of traditional robots—challenging programming, setup, or installing dedicated, shielded work cells.

Equipped with UR-approved cameras for non-destructive 3D measurements, these cobots deliver unmatched consistency with a precision deviation of just ±0.03 mm. With easy implementation in already existing industrial environments, intuitive programming, and a rapid payback period of just 195 days on average, cobots are a transformative solution for precision, efficiency, and reliability in quality inspection processes.

Complete your cobot

Our collaborative, industrial robots require add-ons to reach their full potential. This worlds of additional products in an entire ecosystem on its own. We at Universal Robots take the high pride in our ecosystem, which is called UR+.

Application kits

Application kits are useful for those who can install their own solution but are looking for a compatible set of end-effectors, software and other accessories

Components

Components are single products that can be combined with our UR robot to create an entire solution. This includes items such end-effectors, 7th axis, software or teach pendants.

Solutions

Solutions are flexible and easy to integrate and typically allow for variation in the choice of grippers and all the necessary accessories. These pre-assembled packages are ideal if you are looking for a plug-and-play solution with low risk, a manageable budget and on-site setup.

Tried. Tested. Trusted.

Universal Robots has deployed over 90,000 cobots into every manufacturing industry. Companies of all sizes, from Fortune 500 giants to local contract machine shops, are leveraging our 6th generation cobots to increase productivity and quality and improve job satisfaction for their manufacturing teams.

Flexible

UR cobots meet the demands for flexibility head-on with industry-leading ease-of-use, intuitive programming, and a powerful back-end for OEMs and developers to add value and meet specific needs. UR cobot-based systems generate ROI that is usually measured in months, not years.

Worker-safe, worker-friendly

Universal Robots has developed the most complete set of safety tools and functions in the industry. Our safety protocols can be configured to meet the varied safety requirements of your plant or facilities and your application risk assessment, letting your manufacturing team work safely side-by-side with UR cobots.

Get in touch with Universal Robots

Thousands of businesses rely on Collaborative Robots to...

- Increase productivity
- Adapt to changing product demand
- Improve employee well-being and retention
- Staff through labor shortages