ST Robotics announced today the addition of the new ST R17HS—a high speed version of their five-axis vertically articulated R17 robot arm. The ST R17HS is one of the industry’s fastest robots: standard tool speed is over four times as fast as the nearest competitor, yet it’s less than half the price:

Compare the R17HS to the UR5:
UR5 $35K 1m/sec
R17HS $18K 4m/sec

The ST R17HS uses state-of-the-art brushless servomotors and boasts an effective reach of 750mm, a repeatability of 0.2 mm and a maximum speed after acceleration of 480 deg/sec in the robot’s waist, elbow, hand and wrist, with a shoulder speed of 300 deg/sec.

“The R17HS is the result of years of development that puts us ahead of the field, said David Sands, President and CEO of ST Robotics. “Customers are finding it useful for high throughput production as well as testing applications requiring fast motion of test devices.”

The $18,640 package price includes the R17HS robot arm, the new K11R controller, RoboForth II software, intuitive teach pad, simple interfacing with other equipment, cables, manuals, a two-year warranty and unlimited free technical support. Options include pneumatic, electric and vacuum grippers, and expandable I/O. As with all ST Robotics products, the exceptional manuals and support provided make installation and programming surprisingly easy. This phenomenally robust, self-contained, industrial robot system can be unpacked and programmed in just a few hours, yet it is capable of the most intricate tasks. Applications include testing, sample handling and machine feeding. The mean time between failures (MTBF) is 10,000 hours and typically over a million cycles.

Also available, as a cost-saving comprise for $16,690, is the R17HSW, a high speed waist version of the R17 (5-axis) for applications that do not require much speed in a vertical direction but have long X-Y distances requiring long waist moves.

ST Robotics
strobotics.com