DE8710858U1 - O-ring assembly gripper for industrial robots - Google Patents

Description

Dipl.-Ing. Peter Mertens M.Sc.
Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse 76

6750 Kaiserslautern

O-ring assembly gripper for industrial robots

The innovation relates to an O-ring assembly gripper for the automatic assembly of O-rings placed inside 1, regardless of the assembly depth.

The development of freely programmable handling devices has made a contribution to the automation of material flow in production. The gripping device represents the link between the industrial robot and the workpiece.

Until now, the assembly of internal O-rings has always been extremely difficult. The very time-consuming manual assembly required considerable manual skill and the use of assembly aids often resulted in damage to the rings. For these reasons, the external O-ring was preferred in terms of design.

The assembly of one of the O-rings can be assigned to the axially accessible installation location. It is a snap-in bore assembly in which the O-ring is installed in a non-self-locking rectangular groove; however, since the outside diameter of the O-ring is larger than the bore diameter, it must be tightened during assembly.

This compression of the O-ring was previously achieved using manually fitted assembly sleeves and complicated pressing devices, so that the O-ring was often damaged or a complete assembly was very time-consuming*

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Already developed O-ring assembly aids are subject to the restriction of being limited to certain installation depths and O-ring diameters. If there is not at least a 0*75 « O-ring outer diameter&mdash;
diameter long bore with an inner diameter that is smaller than the O-ring outer diameter before the assembly , so O-ring assembly is often not possible with these devices.

An inventive O-ring assembly gripper for industrial robots
is characterized by a secure recording and an automatic
and the installation of internal O-rings independent of the installation depth, diameter and surface quality of the mounting hole. Such a system is shown in perspective in drawing 1. Drawings 2, 3 and 4 show the installation process of an O-ring using the gripper described.

The vacuum required to hold the O-ring at the gripping point is created by a
Vacuum ejector is used to create a vacuum seal so that the O-ring is held securely during the entire assembly process by both the shape of the gripping point and the vacuum suction force. This combination of
Form and force locking enables* the O-ring to be inserted without additional clamping against the
occurring friction and deformation forces to prevent slipping out.
to back up.

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Functional description

The O-ring (6) to be mounted is brought, for example, on a conveyor belt up to a striking edge which is located on the front of a receiving plateau which is not significantly wider than the O-ring (6) to be mounted so that the O-ring mounting gripper can pick up the O-ring (6) between the suction gripper (1) and the mounting sleeve (2). The robot arm moves at rapid traverse with the O-ring mounting gripper in a vertical position to a receiving plateau and moves the gripper over the O-ring (6) which is ready there so that the plateau is located vertically between the suction gripper (1) and the mounting sleeve (2) and horizontally between the guides (7) of the mounting sleeve (2). The robot arm now moves slightly downwards so that the gripping point (5) of the suction gripper (1) is in the middle of the O-ring (6) that is ready and a few tenths of a millimeter above the receiving plateau. The O-ring (6) is now pushed by the gripper against a stop to ensure that the O-ring (6) is in the negative contour of the gripping point (5) and can now be sucked in. The robot arm then moves _upwards so far that the O-ring (6) can be moved from the plateau and to the assembly point (8). The suction gripper (1) is beveled laterally in the area of the receiving point (5) so that the O-ring

(6) when inserted into the mounting sleeve (2) and the resulting oval deformation can nestle well against these surfaces and is not lifted off the suction bore.

After the O-ring has been successfully picked up, the O-ring assembly gripper now moves vertically or horizontally, depending on the particular assembly case, towards the center of the component-side hole (9) located in front of the assembly point (8) and positions the assembly sleeve (2) exactly in the middle and against the component in front of the hole (9). To ensure the assembly sleeve (2) is precisely centered in relation to the hole (9), the assembly sleeve (2) has a short projection that is inserted into the hole (9). After the gripper is centered in relation to the hole (9), the robot arm moves axially in relation to the assembly direction so that the suction gripper (1) moves relative to the assembly sleeve (2) against the spring force of the guides.

(7) with the O-ring (6) inserted into the mounting sleeve (2) .

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Since the inner diameter of the mounting sleeve (2) is smaller than the
Outer diameter of the O-ring eyelet (2), deformed see this oval and
Is pulled diagonally into the mounting sleeve (2) and at the point in the gripping part (5) up to the mounting part (&thetas;).
The assembly piston (3), now driven by the pneumatic cylinder (10), pushes the D-ring (ω) located diagonally in the assembly sleeve (2) to the assembly point (B), which is always in front of the assembly sleeve (2), so that the O-ring (ω) is pushed into the centering point (8).
»snaps, The shape of the gripping site (5) adapted to the shape of the O-ring prevents the O-ring (6) from being pushed away from the mounting point (B) by the mounting piston (3).

Claims (4)

Protection claims 1. O-ring assembly gripper for industrial robots with a suction gripper (1), an assembly aid (2), an assembly piston (3) and a connection plate (4) for the automatic assembly of O-rings with industrial robots, characterized in that the gripping point (5) of the suction gripper (1) corresponds to the negative inner side of a circular O-ring (6) and contains one or more bores for generating the vacuum required to hold the O-ring (6) and the axially displaceable assembly sleeve (2) is conical or cylindrical, and the diameter of the axially displaceable assembly piston (3) is smaller than the inner diameter of the assembly sleeve (2). 2. O-ring assembly gripper for industrial robots according to claim 1 characterized in that the axially displaceable assembly sleeve (2) is connected to the suction gripper (1) or the connection plate (4) via one or more guides (7) in such a way that the assembly sleeve (2) for passing through the O-ring (6) to be assembled and received by the suction gripper (1) is stationary in front of the assembly point (8) relative to the suction gripper (1) during assembly and thus forms an extension of the bore (9) located on the component side in front of the assembly point (8). 3. O-ring assembly gripper for industrial robots according to claim 2 characterized in that the axially displaceable assembly sleeve (2) has a cylindrical or conical bore, the smallest diameter of which corresponds at most to the component-side bore (9) located in front of the assembly point (S). 4. O-ring assembly gripper for industrial robots according to one of claims 1-3, characterized in that the assembly piston (3) actuated by a pneumatic cylinder (10) is cylindrical or disc-shaped and has a central rectangular outer cavity for receiving the saw gripper base body (1), so that the sawing piston (3) is guided precisely on the flattened sides of the assembly gripper (1) during the manipulation process.