Universal Robots gives a variety of UR licensed grippers by means of UR+ –a worldwide ecosystem of parts, software program, and utility kits which have been validated and licensed to be mechanically, electrically and digitally suitable with cobots from Universal Robots.
At first, the sheer number of grippers obtainable can appear daunting, particularly if you happen to’re new to automation. There are electrical grippers, pneumatic grippers, tender grippers and vacuum grippers. There are 2-finger and 3-finger grippers, magnetic grippers, mechanical grippers and adaptive grippers, and every gripper gives distinctive benefits in help of your machine tending, materials dealing with and meeting functions.
This article is about parallel grippers, so if you happen to’re at a extra preliminary stage in your gripper journey and also you’re questioning ‘What are the types of grippers?’ attempt studying this text first. (If you might be searching for an outline of among the variations between grippers and need to understand how vacuum grippers and pneumatic grippers work, for instance, try this text.)
What is a parallel gripper?
Parallel grippers are a sort 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 in the course of the duty and launch the thing when required. The robotic gripper mechanism present in parallel grippers makes them an important match for dealing with components with predictable shapes and they’re usually chosen for machine tending and decide & place sort functions. Parallel grippers are some of the common gripper sorts within the UR+ ecosystem because of their ease of use.
Parallel grippers could be powered by electrical energy or pneumatics. Electric parallel grippers use electrical energy to energy motors. The motors are linked to the gripper’s fingers in such a manner that the round movement of the motor is translated right into a linear movement. Meanwhile, pneumatically-powered parallel grippers use air stress to open and shut the gripper’s fingers.
Parallel grippers are additionally present in ‘mechanical gripper’ and ‘adaptive gripper’ types. The time period ‘mechanical gripper’ refers to any industrial gripper that makes use of movable levers (or ‘fingers’) to know objects. Mechanical grippers supply dependable efficiency in all types of producing functions from machine tending to meeting, however adaptive grippers are extra versatile, since they permit 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 advanced 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 securely grasp the thing. Meanwhile, angled grippers are so-called as a result of they use fingers that method the gripper from quite a lot of angles (e.g. 80° or 30°). For some functions, akin 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 lined among the fundamentals, let’s check out among the UR licensed parallel grippers obtainable by means of UR+.
Robotiq’s Hand-E gripper gives a 50-mm parallel stroke, which makes it superb for precision meeting duties. The gripper’s sealed design is rugged sufficient to make sure reliability within the hardest manufacturing situations, together with CNC machining. Available in each twin and single configurations and specifically designed to be used with collaborative robots, Hand-E additionally gives 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 implies that it is ready to autonomously alter to many various kinds of merchandise of various configurations and dimensions.