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Danish manufacturer Universal Robots designed its 20 kg UR20 cobot with 1,750 mm of reach. This new design responds to a demand for cobots that can do heavy lifting in a range of industries where palletizing, welding, material handling, machine loading and tending—among other repetitive and strenuous tasks—are routinely needed.
In this video, Anders Beck, vice president, Strategy and Innovation, Universal Robots, provides insights into the design decisions his team made. He said the mechanical design had been around for some time. Back in 2018, when UR launched its eSeries cobots, the design team had already started to rethink the drive train. “We really started all the way from scratch, threw away everything we knew, looked at all the new technologies that came in, sorted them, ranked them, developed prototypes and, in the end, came up with something that is our new design today,” Beck said.
READ MORE: Universal Robots’ Latest Cobot is Redesigned for Palletizing
About the Author

Rehana Begg
Editor-in-Chief, Machine Design
As Machine Design’s content lead, Rehana Begg is tasked with elevating the voice of the design and multi-disciplinary engineer in the face of digital transformation and engineering innovation. Begg has more than 24 years of editorial experience and has spent the past decade in the trenches of industrial manufacturing, focusing on new technologies, manufacturing innovation and business. Her B2B career has taken her from corporate boardrooms to plant floors and underground mining stopes, covering everything from automation & IIoT, robotics, mechanical design and additive manufacturing to plant operations, maintenance, reliability and continuous improvement. Begg holds an MBA, a Master of Journalism degree, and a BA (Hons.) in Political Science. She is committed to lifelong learning and feeds her passion for innovation in publishing, transparent science and clear communication by attending relevant conferences and seminars/workshops.
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