Video: Parts Gripper Allows Machine To Act As Its Own Robot
This footage shows a workpiece gripper that enables a machine to load and unload workpieces on its own.
Schunk has developed a workpiece gripper that enables a machine tool to serve as its own robot. The gripper has an integral taper that installs in a machine’s spindle just like a tool holder. This allows the machine to pick parts from a magazine on its work table and insert them into a workholding device for machining.
This video shows the gripper being used to manipulate toolholder workpieces on a machine in the company’s manufacturing facility. In the video, the gripper first picks a completed workpiece from a chuck and delivers it to a horizontal, rotary carousel. It then rotates the manual carousel to bring a fresh workpiece to the twelve-o’clock position, removes that new part from the carousel and delivers it to the chuck for machining.
For more information about this application, see the article under “Editor Picks” at right.
Related Content
-
Niche Work If You Can Get It: A CNC Machine Shop Crafts Its Own Destiny
The latest innovations in metalworking aren’t always related to CNC automation or robotics. For Rosenberger North America, a 2022 Top Shops Honoree, it is the company’s niche processes that create the biggest successes.
-
Partial Automation Inspires Full Cobot Overhaul
Targeting two-to-four hours of nightly automation enables high-mix manufacturer Wagner Machine to radically boost its productivity past a single shift.
-
CNC Machine Shop Honored for Automation, Machine Monitoring
From cobots to machine monitoring, this Top Shop honoree shows that machining technology is about more than the machine tool.
