Robotic Milling

At Monster City Studios, we have a KUKA 7 Axis robotic mill from Robotic Solutions in Milwaukee, WI. With this robotic arm, we can mill foam, hardwoods, and many plastics. When working with IP, (a brand's property, ie Mickey Mouse or a Coca-Cola Polar Bear) clients require exacting fabriation. Large pieces can be made from solid "tooling blocks" all at once. The seven axis of the KUKA allow for dimensionally accurate reproductions of IP items, unlike using a standard CNC Machine where many layers or parts parts must be glued together to create a final product. Our KUKA theoretically mill a 10'x10'x10' block of material at one time.

The foams we mill include EPS (white bead foam,) urethane foams (including sign board, and tooling board,) and styrofoams (the blue or pink types.) We can mill softwoods, with rough detail. Hardwoods will allow for much more detail and provides an excellent finish. We can also mill foamed PVC, ABS sheet and high density tooling boards.

Some of these carved pieces are used for final articles, such as foam sculpts that are hard-coated with poly-urea or different types of epoxies. Others are used as "bucks" that are finished and are only used to make a mold of either fiberglass or rubber. Those final articles are either made from fiberglass, rotocasted resin or even poured foams.