Schmalz Develops Extra Flat FEL Pneumatic Gripper for Tight Spaces
Schmalz has developed a lightweight, extra-thin gripper for use in tight spaces, such as screen handling and other applications where vertical vacuum gripper height is a concern for end users.
Gripper shape and size can be a major hurdle for some robotic processes. Custom-built grippers can be cost-prohibitive, and are often untested for the (hopefully) millions of cycles they will experience in their lifetime. The ideal robotic gripping scenario for many manufacturers is to have a production gripper that fits into many different applications, so gripper size and shape should be taken into consideration when designing or retrofitting a cell.
Many times, the final design of the gripper rests on the end user or a partner engineering firm to determine the size, shape, weight, and power source to most effectively interface with the part, but when a manufacturer reveals a new innovative design that meets the needs of many customers, it’s a breath of fresh air.
The New Schmalz Vacuum Gripper
Schmalz has developed a very thin vacuum gripper in order to be used with tv screens and other thin flat products. It can be difficult to get flat items into or out of a box, and the thin shape of the vacuum gripper aids in this process. The gripper is useful for tasks outside of screen handling, however, and can aid manufacturers in other automated processes where space can be a limiting factor.
The Schmalz vacuum gripper is thin enough to fit monitors into boxes, an often difficult-to-automate task. Image used courtesy of Schmalz
Features of the New FEL Gripper
The new Schmalz gripper has been announced as the FEL series, featuring a height of just 26.5 cm, or barely over an inch, giving manufacturers new gripping possibilities for many plant processes. The gripper was designed specifically to fit between thin shelving units and storage areas. The skinny shape can also help improve cell storage capacity by allowing storage racks to have less space between shelves since the gripper takes up very little vertical real estate. This translates to higher product capacity in a smaller volume meaning more time between restocking of consumables matched with a larger storage capacity.
Schmalz has designed the gripper to be energy efficient also by including four different vacuum zones on the gripper that can be individually turned on or turned off. This helps prevent suction cups pulling vacuum on open spaces, a major waste of compressed air. Compressed air requires a lot of energy to create, so wasting it is cost prohibitive. In addition, channels are cut into each section that supply each individual area to keep interfering contours as small as possible. External generators are used to help build up the vacuum's gripping power.
The thin foam on the bottom of the FEL gripper is soft enough to be used with sensitive products. Image used courtesy of Schmalz
The gripper has been designed out of lightweight aluminum, with a modular design. The aluminum design helps to keep the weight of the FEL gripper below 3 kg. The FEL has a high load capacity and is capable of lifting 1400 N (about 140 kg or 315 lb) in the vertical lifting position. The high gripping capacity is useful for working deep in boxes and grabbing products in different grip positions, before carrying them with various dynamic movements.
The foam used to facilitate vacuum grip has been made out of a durable material for long-lasting scratch-free gripping. Once the effective lifespan of the foam has been used up, it can be easily changed with the use of a quick change film.
Differing gripping lengths are available, and the sides of the gripper have built-in T-slots that allow end users to add sensors or mount external equipment to the gripper where necessary. The gripper comes in three different lengths to help customers customize gripping for their specific needs. The various lengths include 352 mm, 550 mm, and 748 mm.
Vacuum Powered Grippers
Using air to power grippers has long since been one of the most time and cost-effective methods of handling parts. A nearly infinite list of configurations with jaws, vacuum suction, and others allows these grippers to find use in nearly every aspect of robotic workcell development.
