Abstract
A foam-pad vacuum gripping tool comprising one mounting flange, six foam pads, one plant vacuum connection, one isolation valve, one manifold, one contact detector and one vent valve. When the foam pads reach the workpiece, the foam pads are evacuated by the plant vacuum connection. After the workpiece has reached the set-down position, the vacuum circuit is vented by the vent valve. The arrangement is a proposed configuration composed from a typed library of mechanism blocks derived from published patents; it has not been constructed.
1. Purpose and arrangement
[0001]This disclosure describes a foam-pad vacuum gripping tool: six foam pads carried on a mounting flange, fed by a plant vacuum connection. It is arranged for cutting part of the circuit while the rest holds vacuum, starting the cycle at the moment of contact, controlling the moment of release and holding a workpiece that a rigid lip cannot seal against. One concrete embodiment is described; every connection is stated with the medium it carries, and the operating sequence is given as conditions on named operations.
2. Components, construction and connections
[0002]One mounting flange. The mounting flange carries the whole assembly and presents the bolt pattern that meets the robot.
[0003]Six foam pads. Each foam pad presents a compliant face to the workpiece; the holding force is spread over the contact area rather than concentrated at a lip. The count of six follows from the arrangement: one gripping element per manifold outlet. The pad is of open cell foam.
[0004]One plant vacuum connection. The plant vacuum connection takes vacuum from the plant line, so the tool carries no generator of its own.
[0005]One isolation valve. The isolation valve sits in the line it controls; closing it cuts that line without disturbing the rest of the circuit. Isolation is common.
[0006]One manifold. The manifold receives the vacuum at one inlet and distributes it to its outlets. The manifold has six outlets.
[0007]One contact detector. The contact detector reports the moment a workpiece is present at the gripping face; its sensing technology is not fixed by this arrangement. The contact detector is mounted on the gripping face.
[0008]One vent valve. The vent valve opens the circuit it is connected to towards atmosphere, which ends the grip. The circuit is vented after set-down.
[0009]The foam pads are carried on the tool side of the mounting flange.
[0010]The manifold is fixed to the tool side of the mounting flange.
[0011]The isolation valve is placed in the line from the plant vacuum connection, so that closing the valve cuts the whole circuit from the supply.
[0012]The manifold inlet is connected to the isolation valve outlet, which supplies every outlet of the manifold.
[0013]Each manifold outlet feeds one foam pad by its own vacuum line, so that the six outlets feed six foam pads.
[0014]The contact detector is mounted on the gripping face and reports the moment a workpiece is present against the gripping face.
[0015]The vent valve is connected to the circuit at the line downstream of the isolation valve and opens that circuit to atmosphere when it is actuated.
[0016]The robot side of the mounting flange is bolted to the robot flange.
[0017]The isolation valve and the vent valve are switched by the cell controller; the contact detector reports to the cell controller.
3. Operating sequence and conditions
[0018]
- After the contact detector has detected the workpiece, the vacuum supply is actuated by the cell controller.
[0019]
- When the foam pads reach the workpiece, the foam pads are evacuated by the plant vacuum connection.
[0020]
- After the foam pads have reached the workpiece, the isolation valve is closed by the cell controller.
[0021]
- While the isolation valve is in the closed state, the vacuum downstream of the valve is maintained by the sealed gripping face.
[0022]
- After the workpiece has reached the set-down position, the vacuum circuit is vented by the vent valve.
[0023]
- The workpiece is held until the vent valve has opened the circuit.
[0024]The cell controller reads the contact detector (on the gripping face) and commands the isolation valve, the vent valve; no sensor drives an actuator directly.
4. Parameters and operating assumptions
[0025]Parameter values of this embodiment: material of the foam pads: sponge (sets the compliance of the sealing face); porosity of the foam pads: open cell (sets whether air passes through the pad body or only through openings cut through it); control of the isolation valve: common (sets which part of the circuit the valve cuts: one branch line on its own or the whole circuit); material of the isolation valve: steel; outlets of the manifold: six (sets how many lines can be fed from one inlet); placement of the contact detector: on the gripping face (sets where the presence of the workpiece is detected); timing of the vent valve: after set-down (sets whether the workpiece is released before or after it is supported by the set-down surface).
[0026]The open-cell foam passes air through its whole face, so an uncovered part of the face draws air through the pad itself; the supply is sized for that continuous flow and the pad relies on flow restriction through the foam, not on a seal, to hold vacuum behind a covered area.
5. Provenance and status
[0027]This document is an original combination composed from a typed library of mechanism blocks. Each block was derived from a published patent and carries typed connection points, the parameters its source states, and its own construction and operating description. The combination described here is proposed and has not been constructed. The published documents behind the blocks used in this arrangement are EP-4385681-B1, US-10163334-B1, US-10259123-B2, US-10549431-B2, US-2022339798-A1, US-8006968-B2, WO-2008134339-A4; their text is not reproduced, and the description above is generated from the structure of the combination.