Smooth running: ball bearing equipped robot grippers offer better linear movement

Citation

(2001), "Smooth running: ball bearing equipped robot grippers offer better linear movement", Industrial Robot, Vol. 28 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2001.04928bad.010

Smooth running: ball bearing equipped robot grippers offer better linear movement

Smooth running: ball bearing equipped robot grippers offer better linear movement

Keywords: Grippers, Robots, Linear bearings

Even the most well lubricated linear slide movements found in parallel grippers (Plate 8) used on robots have a tendency to slip or stick and, as a consequence, cause loss of precision and repeatability.

However, now available in the UK from Leader Grippers, Chertsey, is a new family of parallel grippers that incorporate special ball bearing type slides to ensure smooth, trouble-free running.

Plate 8 Parallel gripper

Manufactured in Germany by specialist workholders Sommer Automatic, these latest models are air powered, driven by a double-acting pneumatic cylinder via an abrasion-proof wedge type connecting link.

A standard set of jaws comes with each gripper and these, as with any special jaws manufactured by the customer, can be precision mounted using dowel locating pins.

The model range is available with standard strokes of 2 x 3 up to 2 x 15 millimeters. The gripping forces available range from 40N up to 934N. Up to 1.5 million lead-cycles can be readily attained without maintenance problems.