Importance Of Grippers For SMEs In United States
When embracing new technology such as robotics, the automobile industry in the USA wastes no time. The industry is ready to invest time and resources on anything that can ramp up its production cycle. They are keen to improve their infrastructure and workforce and whatever it takes to get the production line going.
But smaller companies working on large volumes of production components are not as open in adapting to newer technologies. Most of these companies find robotics and similar technology too expensive and complex to handle. However, they do have the constant challenge of sourcing enough human workers for managing their assembly lines. This is where the Techman Grippers in the USA can be useful.
Smart Grippers and Collaborative Automation
Smart grippers like the Hand-E are compact 50mm stroke grippers that are the strongest in its class and size. They come with a grip force of 60 – 130 newtons and 5kg form-fit grip payload. They belong to the plug-and-play range of grippers with a setup time under 10 minutes. They also attach easily to Robotiq’s FT300 force-torque sensor for machine tending on CNC machines or a wrist camera for the perfect pick and place operations. They are safe to use and have no sharp edges or pinch points, easily the ideal choice for collaborative robots.
These were designed to work hand-in-hand with new e-series cobots. It has to be noted that the 2F-85 and 2F-140, the two larger models in the Adaptive Gripper range, also works well with the e-series.
Smart Grippers – What Makes them Smart?
However, the smart TM grippers have few distinguishing features that help in Industrial Sectors in the US. They come with upgraded software and an interactive interface where the user just has to enter the dimensions. The rest of the operations happen behind the scenes. The whole technology is intuitive and totally demystified. An operator can just snap a few clicks on his tablet, and the robot and the gripper take the cue and do the rest of the job. Thus, it does not require technical experts or an experienced operator to make it function. The results are the same independent of who operates it and opens up the field for lesser-skilled workers.
Further, the force, speed and position are all configured, and the grippers respond with accurate part detection and piece validation. The IP67-rated grippers excelled in several experiments to test accuracy. For E.g.the Hand-E could quickly sort 47 and 48mm PCBs into two distinct piles. In another experiment, the gripper was able to thread a tiny wire through a hole, thanks to its force sensing functionality. The gripper can sense a bad part and can be programmed along with the robot to place those parts in a reject bin.
Getting the configurations right is essential for effective collaboration with the machine tool. A simple malfunction could slow down production. For e.g., if a metal block were to slip and get incorrectly placed on a work holding, it could cause a jam, stopping or slowing down production.
Smart Grippers Pave the Way For Automation
Hand-E and similar smart TM grippers are a great help to manufacturers in the USA to systematically deploy an intelligent automated workforce. These are easily installable and can be set up and configured in no time and be deployed in the production line almost immediately. Hence small manufacturers in the United States of America do not have to worry about any slowdown in production to facilitate installation and setup.
This new range of electric grippers has some visibly improved features such as reduced space in the work cell, as there is no need for pneumatic air compressors or airline to be accommodated. They offer a considerable reduction in installation time and costs and eliminate the maintenance effort on regulators and valves. They also come with a fingertip starter kit available with three kits, and so they can be deployed in a variety of applications. This is a big step towards customization, and 50% of the end-users can design the requirement on their own. The kit enables them to create several designs, creating special grooves and slots according to the part they want them to grip.
The only possible tradeoff may be that electric grippers cannot be employed in all applications as they are less powerful than their hydraulic or pneumatic counterparts.