Canvas, a construction robotics company, has launched its new compact 1200CX drywall finishing machine, equipped with a UR10e cobot (“collaborative robot”) arm from Universal Robots for Level 4 and 5 spray and sand. It reduces mud application and sanding from five to two days, while capturing 99% of dust.
For decades, construction has been a vastly under-automated industry due to dynamic environments that made it incredibly challenging for traditional robots to handle. But flexible cobots with built-in safety are changing that. That can be particularly helpful in drywall finishing, which can sometimes be a construction bottleneck.
The system is a compact, lightweight and easily maneuverable machine. It is also highly versatile across project portfolios, enabling customers with smaller spaces, such as multi-family and tower construction projects, to leverage Canvas machines.
The 1200CX is compact, measuring 30” x 34.5” and weighing 1,200 lb. with a 12’ finishing height. It includes all-wheel steering and battery power that allows it to run all day on a single charge. Robotic precision means it can provide a more consistent finish. It’s intuitive to learn, easy to use and enables workers with skills for the future while reducing fatigue, injuries and repetitive motions.
The Canvas system uses robotic precision to spray-apply all of the joint compound onto the wall in a single step, reducing the time required to finish a wall from five days, in a traditional manual process, to just two days, with one day for mud application and one day for sanding. After a single drying cycle, an interchangeable sanding head is swapped onto the machine to sand down the wall while the vacuum system captures 99.9% of the dust.
The 1200CX perfectly supplements the existing 1550 model, which at 15.5’ finishing height, is attuned to taller, more open spaces.
