Today, about 20,000 machine shops and fabricators in the US use "Computer Numerical Control" machines to fabricate parts through processes like milling and turning, grinding, laser cutting, punching and bending. CNC machines are precise tools and essential for producing custom, high quality parts for industries like aerospace, industrial equipment, semiconductor, automotive and medical. 

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While these CNC machines are accurate and versatile at the task level, there remains a lot of room for equipment efficiency improvement at the operational level as these machines remain difficult to staff, automate and make basic process changes day to day. Typically the machines need a person to handle each part to place it in and out of the machine. Traditional automation approaches also make 'unattended machining' a difficult goal to achieve due to the complexity of the setup and the challenge of facilitating higher frequency job and part changeovers. Because of this, companies providing automation solutions to the CNC market are seeing an emerging demand for more flexible and adaptive automation solutions that are straightforward to integrate and use.

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Collaborating on cutting edge CNC machine tending

Trinity Robotics Automation, an expert US-based system integrator specializing in CNC automation solutions, also sees this demand and opportunity. We’re excited to share more about our collaboration with Trinity, who brings decades of experience in mechanical design, CNC machine integration, system installation, and customer service in CNC automation.

Built with Intrinsic’s platform and Flowstate, the solution makes good use of Intrinsic’s first party capabilities including automated grasp and robot path planning, along with sensor-guided skills for workpiece insertion. Combined in this type of solution, these capabilities help customers move away from manual robot reprogramming when a new part needs to be introduced. This type of solution is a significant step towards helping machine shops and fabricators achieve “high mix production” with easy to use, flexible, low training solutions.

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“The Intrinsic platform is enabling us to take a huge leap forward in how we deliver automation to CNC machine shops. For our team, it significantly accelerates development and integration—what once took weeks now happens in days. For our customers, it unlocks the ability to automate high-mix part loading with greater ease and flexibility. We’re excited about building with Intrinsic because it supports our mission to bring advanced machine automation to more customers, from small shops to large operations.” - Derek Goodwin, General Manager at Trinity Robotics Automation.

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Autonomous robots, no programming required

For CNC machine users and machine shops, there are many benefits to incorporating intelligent robotic machine tending solutions that can ease longstanding limitations in their day-to-day operations - simplifying the process of production, and helping businesses do more with the machines they have. 

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This type of solution doesn’t require manual robot programming, so they can more easily integrate state-of-the-art machine tending technology into their existing operations. With robotic assistance, machine shops will have an easier time dealing with variability from new parts and different batch sizes - including high mix production and reducing setup times for new jobs.

As less manual operation and intervention will be needed per machine, they can run simultaneously and for longer periods of time. Machine operators will be able to manage multiple machines at once by leveraging intelligently integrated robots alongside the CNC machine. Operators can use simple interfaces to introduce new parts and configure the system. This can be done while an existing process is already running, helping machinists to maximize their time. In the near future, operators will also be able to set up jobs for 'multi-operation parts' that require a specific sequence of machining.

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"Our partnership with Trinity is rooted in a shared goal to make flexible robotics practical and valuable for machine shops and manufacturers of all sizes" said Wendy Tan White, CEO of Intrinsic. "The team at Trinity sees the untapped potential for their customers and we’re excited to bring easy-to-use, intelligent robotics to our next vertical and the CNC machine market”.

By combining Trinity's deep CNC domain expertise with Intrinsic's intelligent capabilities we’ve taken the first step to bring easy-to-develop, autonomous robotic solutions to the CNC market. Working with Trinity’s team we’re excited to introduce intelligent robotics to more machine shops and manufacturers.

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To learn more about Intrinsic and how we are enabling solutions like the one being developed with Trinity, please visit our website or request a demo. You can also see our solutions at upcoming industry events, including Automatica from June 24 - 27, 2025 in Munich, Germany.