Overview
The lightweight gripper for transferring boxes using vacuum cups. Each corrugated box is secured by four vacuum cups and two high-performance vacuum ejectors.
Additional Features:
Pallet gripping capability,
Electromechanical system for detecting the top pallet in a stack,
Vacuum sensors in each independent circuit,
Three-stage vacuum ejectors for maximum performance.
My Role
Mechanical Design Engineer
Challenges and Solutions
The use of vacuum technology for transferring boxes required extensive preparatory work. It was essential to ensure:
The vacuum ejectors could generate sufficient airflow to securely hold porous cardboard boxes,
The top surface of the box could withstand the forces generated by the robot’s rapid movements.
Field tests were conducted using a different robot, and based on the results, a lightweight gripper weighing only 45 kg was developed, meeting all technical requirements.
The optimized design significantly reduced costs by:
Simplifying the gripper structure,
Allowing the use of a palletizing robot with minimal payload capacity, further reducing equipment costs.