Abstract
A bellows-cup vacuum gripping tool comprising one mounting flange, six bellows cups, one plant vacuum connection, one isolation valve, one manifold and one vent valve. When the bellows cups reach the workpiece, the bellows cups 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 bellows-cup vacuum gripping tool: six bellows cups 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, controlling the moment of release and taking up height differences at the face. 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 bellows cups. Each bellows cup is folded so that it shortens under vacuum and takes up a height difference between the face and the workpiece. The count of six follows from the arrangement: one gripping element per manifold outlet. Each bellows cup has three folds.
[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 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.
[0008]The bellows cups are carried on the tool side of the mounting flange.
[0009]The manifold is fixed to the tool side of the mounting flange.
[0010]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.
[0011]The manifold inlet is connected to the isolation valve outlet, which supplies every outlet of the manifold.
[0012]Each manifold outlet feeds one bellows cup by its own vacuum line, so that the six outlets feed six bellows cups.
[0013]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.
[0014]The robot side of the mounting flange is bolted to the robot flange.
[0015]The isolation valve and the vent valve are switched by the cell controller.
3. Operating sequence and conditions
[0016]
- When the bellows cups reach the workpiece, the bellows cups are evacuated by the plant vacuum connection.
[0017]
- After the bellows cups have reached the workpiece, the isolation valve is closed by the cell controller.
[0018]
- While the isolation valve is in the closed state, the vacuum downstream of the valve is maintained by the sealed gripping face.
[0019]
- After the workpiece has reached the set-down position, the vacuum circuit is vented by the vent valve.
[0020]
- The workpiece is held until the vent valve has opened the circuit.
[0021]The cell controller commands the isolation valve, the vent valve; no sensor drives an actuator directly.
4. Parameters and operating assumptions
[0022]Parameter values of this embodiment: folds of the bellows cups: three (sets the travel taken up between the face and the workpiece, and the lateral stiffness of the cup under load); material of the bellows cups: plastic (sets the friction at the lip and the resistance of the folds to fatigue); 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); 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).
5. Provenance and status
[0023]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-4489564-B1, US-10163334-B1, US-10259123-B2, US-10549431-B2, US-8006968-B2, WO-2008134339-A4; their text is not reproduced, and the description above is generated from the structure of the combination.