By Graham K. Rogers

Epson Corporation have a good history when it comes to the development of robots for industry. One area in which it excels is that of SCARA robots: Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (or Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm). These are frequently used in industrial situations where precision and speed are needed.

Epson has added to its popular H-series SCARA devices with the announcement of two new lightweight H4 models: a standard model and a version for clean-room operations. These allow users to customize their production lines and maximize performance with the application program just by selecting the required performance mode.

With a height of 550 mm and weight of only 14 kg they are comparatively small and light, ideally suited to the space-saving needed for modern operations, coupled with the low vibration that is essential in precision operations. The clean room robots offer protection against electrostatic discharges (ESD).

For more information about the H4 series and other robot solutions offered by Epson, the Epson Robot pages have a number of useful links.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.