URC

URC Automation is a robot systems integrator and designer located in central Minnesota - in business since 1990.

Believe it or not, all the robot systems on these web pages were designed, built and installed by only two people!

What we lack in personnel, we make up for with excellent robot cell designs that require a minimum of maintenance and support.

We back all of our systems with a 12 month warranty. The robots have the same warranty and the warranty is provided by robot vendors.

Being a smaller integrator than most, our overhead is also lower and we pass that savings on to our customers.

URC History

URC Automation was started in 1990 to develop robot control systems for robots. The first contract was building a robot system for testing nerve gas decontamination procedures on a US Army project for General Atomics in San Diego, CA.

The control systems evolved and by 1993, URC debuted the world's first known commercial Windows™ servo motion controller. This controller was successfully implemented as a 200 - 600 ton hydraulic press-brake control and as a 6 axis robot controller. A similar PLC based control was used to bend most of the furniture frames used in fabricating outdoor furniture for Walt Disney World.

URC worked on custom automated machines during this period and started implementing standard robot applications for welding and machine loading in 1994. Most FAA computer enclosures on aircraft were TIG welded by a URC robot welding system during the 1990's.

In 1996, URC designed and built its first 6 axis robot router cell for trimming features on plastic parts. 1998 saw the debut of URC's first mobile 6 axis robot router.

During the last half of the 1990's, URC was also involved in using robots to form 72 inch diameter metal shells at temperatures up to 2000 degrees, measuring moisture in material to a fraction of a gram, and developing precision shot robot ladling of molten aluminum for electrical motor frames.

Today URC designs and builds robot systems for material removal (routing and drilling) and machine loading applications. Custom machine designs are also still being produced.

The majority of URC's early automated machines are still running today.


	Randy Reed
		Randy is the owner and robot systems designer for URC Automation. Previous to starting URC, he worked as a Robotics Project Engineer on aerospace and automotive systems. Some of these systems included car parts handling, aircraft inspection and work on B2 bomber stealth technology. Later he spent a number of years training robot automation technicians in an AAS degree program. All of the robot systems and custom machines that you see on these web pages were designed by Randy.