Adjustable grippers by ATM Automation cut changeover time at Legrand

Citation

(1999), "Adjustable grippers by ATM Automation cut changeover time at Legrand", Industrial Robot, Vol. 26 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1999.04926aad.001

Adjustable grippers by ATM Automation cut changeover time at Legrand

Adjustable grippers by ATM Automation cut changeover time at Legrand

Keywords Grippers, Robots

Versatile pivoted vacuum grippers supplied to Legrand Electric by ATM Automation enable downtime to be cut when product changeovers are made. They also reduce the amount of initial investment in end of arm devices involved when Legrand wished to mould 15 different types of electrical and telephone face plates in thermoplastic materials on a 90 tonne machine to which an ATM ES1000 electric robot is fitted.

Hot runner tooling employed is of a special type developed by the Milton Keynes based electrical accessories manufacturer itself to permit quick changeovers. ATM studied the part designs with particular reference to the relative dispositions of the flat areas of the different moulding to determine the minimum number of gripper patterns which needed to be employed.

Two of the mouldings each required individually dedicated grippers but it was found that the remaining 13 could be handled by three grippers with suitably adjustable sets of pivoted vacuum pads. This considerably reduced the investment required.

When a product change is made, two Allen screws in the end of the arm device that lock the pivot are first unfastened. The pivot is then suitably rotated in an arc shaped slot so that the set of pads is shifted to the required position for the next product.

The screws are then retightened to complete the task in about two minutes. The arc slots have a radius of about 20mm and each provides approximately 80° of adjustment, enabling one set of pads to be matched to several products.

The number of product changes that may be made in a week on the machine varies but may be as high as ten. It is quicker and easier to adjust a pivoted gripper than to change a complete attachment and a valuable cumulative reduction in downtime is attained.

For further information contact Robert Hopper, ATM Automation. Tel: +44 (0)116 277 3607.