Common Robots supplies a variety of UR licensed grippers by UR+ –a world ecosystem of elements, software program, and software kits which have been validated and licensed to be mechanically, electrically and digitally suitable with cobots from Common Robots.
At first, the sheer number of grippers accessible can appear daunting, particularly should you’re new to automation. There are electrical grippers, pneumatic grippers, smooth grippers and vacuum grippers. There are 2-finger and 3-finger grippers, magnetic grippers, mechanical grippers and adaptive grippers, and every gripper supplies distinctive benefits in help of your machine tending, materials dealing with and meeting functions.
This text is about parallel grippers, so should you’re at a extra preliminary stage in your gripper journey and also you’re questioning ‘What are the sorts of grippers?’ strive studying this text first. (If you’re in search of an summary of among the variations between grippers and wish to understand how vacuum grippers and pneumatic grippers work, for instance, try this text.)
What’s a parallel gripper?
Parallel grippers are a kind of commercial robotic gripper that includes two fingers that stay parallel after they open and shut. In operation, the fingers shut onto the workpiece, grip it at some point of the duty and launch the item when required. The robotic gripper mechanism present in parallel grippers makes them an awesome match for dealing with components with predictable shapes and they’re typically chosen for machine tending and decide & place kind functions. Parallel grippers are probably the most well-liked gripper sorts within the UR+ ecosystem resulting from their ease of use.
Parallel grippers will be powered by electrical energy or pneumatics. Electrical parallel grippers use electrical energy to energy motors. The motors are linked to the gripper’s fingers in such a approach that the round movement of the motor is translated right into a linear movement. In the meantime, pneumatically-powered parallel grippers use air strain to open and shut the gripper’s fingers.
Parallel grippers are additionally present in ‘mechanical gripper’ and ‘adaptive gripper’ kinds. The time period ‘mechanical gripper’ refers to any industrial gripper that makes use of movable levers (or ‘fingers’) to know objects. Mechanical grippers provide dependable efficiency in all types of producing functions from machine tending to meeting, however adaptive grippers are extra versatile, since they allow your robotic to choose up all kinds of various objects with out the end-user having to step in and alter the gripper.
Parallel grippers shouldn’t be confused with 3-finger or angled grippers. 3-finger grippers have a extra complicated mechanism that grasp the workpiece with three fingers which might be offset by 120°. In operation, the fingers slide the workpiece to the gripper’s centre to soundly grasp the item. In the meantime, angled grippers are so-called as a result of they use fingers that strategy the gripper from quite a lot of angles (e.g. 80° or 30°). For some functions, corresponding to when there isn’t house for a parallel gripper to open and shut efficiently, angled grippers could be the better option.
Now that we’ve coated among the fundamentals, let’s check out among the UR licensed parallel grippers accessible by UR+.
Robotiq’s Hand-E gripper supplies a 50-mm parallel stroke, which makes it perfect for precision meeting duties. The gripper’s sealed design is rugged sufficient to make sure reliability within the hardest manufacturing circumstances, together with CNC machining. Obtainable in each twin and single configurations and specifically designed to be used with collaborative robots, Hand-E additionally supplies adjustable power, rounded edges, self-locking functionalities, and different options that make it secure to make use of in shut proximity to people. The Hand-E is really adaptive, which signifies that it is ready to autonomously regulate to many several types of merchandise of various styles and sizes.