WO2024121039A1

WO2024121039A1 - Gripper head, method for manipulating piece goods, and rotating and distributing system comprising such a gripper head

Info

Publication number: WO2024121039A1
Application number: PCT/EP2023/084079
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michael Hartl; Michael Jaiser; Manuel Kollmuss; Stefan Schwarzkopf; Josef Unterseher
Original assignee: Krones Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 2022-12-05
Filing date: 2023-12-04
Publication date: 2024-06-13

Abstract

The invention relates to a gripper head (10) for manipulating piece goods (24) and to a corresponding manipulation method. The gripper head (10) comprises at least two gripper bars (12, 14), which interact and can be advanced towards each other in order to temporarily grip a piece good (24) or multiple grouped piece goods (24) and which are movably arranged on a gripper base (20) of the gripper head (10), and a support bar (16), which is suspended on the gripper base (20) and is located between the two movable gripper bars (12, 14) and which separates at least two piece goods (24) that have been gripped in a clamped manner by the gripper bars (12, 14) advanced towards each other and supports said piece goods against each other. In particular, the support bar (16) is movably suspended on the gripper base (20), and the position of the support bar is adapted to that of the respective at least one piece good (24) gripped by the gripper bars (12, 14) or to the positions of multiple piece goods (24) or deviates in its position so as to avoid the at least one piece good (24) gripped by the gripper bars (12, 14). (Fig. 2B)

Description

Gripper head and method for manipulating piece goods as well as rotation and distribution system with such a gripper head

The present invention relates to a gripper head for manipulating piece goods, a rotating and distributing system with such a gripper head and a method for grasping and manipulating piece goods by means of a gripper head.

Known packaging or palletizing systems for stacking, palletizing or rotating and/or distributing objects such as packages or containers with multiple items, such as beverage containers, usually have horizontal conveyor systems with conveyor belts on which the piece goods or containers are conveyed in continuous or irregular sequence to a handling device. There, individual piece goods or containers are shifted, aligned and/or rotated in order to bring them into a suitable spatial arrangement, which forms a basis for pushing the piece goods or containers together in downstream grouping stations to form stackable piece goods or container layers.

Currently used handling devices which effect such displacement, alignment and/or rotation of individual items of goods or containers can be provided with grippers which can be suspended from a portal system, for example, and can be displaced, rotated and also moved in a defined range of motion in order to lift individual items of goods or containers for rotation and/or displacement. The rotation and/or displacement can also take place without the respective items of goods or containers being moved in a vertical direction. In other known embodiments, the grippers can also be arranged on multi-axis robot arms which are placed on the side of the horizontal conveyor devices.

After a turning and/or shifting process, the bars that can be moved against each other, with which the grippers are usually equipped, can be opened or their relative distance from each other can be increased, whereby the piece goods that were held clamped until then are released at a designated destination. Such bars can, for example, have flat side surfaces that come into surface contact with the respective piece goods in order to hold the piece goods with force. Such bars can also be formed by gripping fingers or include gripping fingers that can be inserted between adjacent beverage containers of a piece of goods. They are inserted in a form-fitting manner, which can reduce the risk that the piece goods being clamped will accidentally come loose from the gripper during manipulation. Such gripper fingers can be used particularly effectively when piece goods are to be manipulated at high speed or with a high cycle frequency using the gripper.

The piece goods can be, for example, packages with several beverage containers, so that a corresponding gripper can receive such packages and then rotate or move them as required. For example, packages are known in which several beverage containers are held together by means of a strap and/or a banderol. In addition, there are packages in which articles are held together by a so-called tray, which holds several beverage containers; such a tray can have side tabs or edge sections that have been converted into an upright orientation. In addition, packages are known in which beverage containers are held together by a flat packaging cut that has been clipped onto the respective beverage containers from above. Such packaging cuts, known in practice as top clips, can be made of cardboard and/or paperboard.

In addition, various gripper heads are used which, in addition to the two familiar gripper bars that can be moved against each other, have a separating plate in the middle between them. The two gripper bars that can be moved against each other and the separating plate are each suspended from a horizontal support, which in turn can be mounted so that it can rotate on a rod (not shown) of a tripod or a portal suspension or similar suspension. The separating plate is suspended in the middle of the support and, in use, supports the two items of goods being gripped against each other when the gripper bars are moved against each other from the outside.

Practice has shown that manipulation of containers using gripper heads can in many cases lead to the containers being held in place by the gripper shifting, which can be the case in particular when the containers are rotated by means of the gripper. If two adjacent containers shift relative to each other, these containers end up in an arrangement in which, for example, beverage containers from a first container partially dip between beverage containers from an adjacent container. Such an arrangement is referred to in the field of packing and palletizing technology as a nested arrangement. If containers are placed in a nested arrangement, If containers end up in a nested arrangement, their common width is reduced, which is undesirable in practice and can lead to disruptions or problems during the subsequent processing of the containers. It is also often the case that containers that end up in a nested arrangement unintentionally come loose from the gripper, since these containers in a nested arrangement are no longer held with the necessary clamping force by the gripper's bars.

To avoid such problems, grippers are often used that have at least one separating or supporting plate arranged between the gripper bars. If several containers arranged next to each other are gripped by a gripper, each container comes into surface contact with the separating or supporting plate, which can prevent containers from accidentally detaching from the gripper during subsequent manipulation.

Such a gripper is shown in EP 4 067271 A1. This discloses a gripper for grasping piece goods moving in several parallel rows and a corresponding method for handling piece goods moving in several parallel rows. Two gripper bars can perform feed movements in order to clamp piece goods from different parallel rows. In addition, the gripper is equipped with a support bar that is arranged between the gripper bars. The support bar is movably mounted in order to be able to change its position to adapt to different piece goods positions or different dimensions of the piece goods grasped.

Another gripping device for handling piece goods or containers is known from EP 2 388216 A1. The gripping device disclosed there has two opposing gripping means that can be advanced to receive piece goods. The gripper heads each have two gripper bars that can be advanced against each other and a separating plate located centrally between them. The two gripper bars that can be advanced against each other and the separating plate are each suspended from a horizontal support, which in turn can be rotatably mounted on a rod (not shown) of a tripod or a portal suspension or similar suspension. The separating plate is suspended centrally on the support and, in use, supports the two gripped piece goods against each other when the gripper bars are advanced against each other from the outside. These known gripper heads are generally equipped for either single-lane or double-lane operation and are designed accordingly. For many applications, it has been proven that at least one corresponding separating or supporting plate is either necessary or useful depending on the manipulation to be carried out, or can be omitted entirely if the manipulation in question does not require such a separating or supporting plate. If a gripper is to be used for different manipulation tasks, the gripper must therefore be adapted to the respective manipulation task, which may require at least one separating or supporting plate to be arranged on the gripper or at least one separating or supporting plate to be removed from the gripper. In particular, it is necessary to adapt a gripper to different manipulation tasks if the gripper is initially provided with piece goods that are moved along exactly one row one behind the other and the gripper is provided with subsequent piece goods that are moved along two parallel rows or along more than two parallel rows one behind the other into a working area of the gripper. An operator is also required for the associated adaptation of the gripper, which in practice requires additional personnel effort.

In addition, the known gripper heads are generally equipped and designed for either single-lane or multi-lane operation. Such gripper heads that are intended for two-lane or multi-lane operation are generally equipped with a central separating plate or, if necessary, in accordance with EP 4 067271 A1, with several separating plates for mutual support of the gripped packages or piece goods.

However, gripper head designs that are designed for multi-lane operation cannot be used to pick up individual piece goods, just as gripper heads without a separating plate generally do not work reliably when picking up two or more piece goods, as the piece goods can easily fall out. In addition, with a gripper head without such a separating plate, there is a risk that the individual components of several combined piece goods can be pressed into one another, for example in the case of bundles with combined container groups.

It would also be desirable to have options that could shorten the changeover times for a gripper or even eliminate the need for changeover work on the gripper altogether. Grippers that have greater flexibility in accepting piece goods than grippers known from the state of the art are also desirable. In view of the known state of the art, it can be considered a primary aim of the invention to provide a universally applicable gripper head and a universally applicable rotation and distribution system with such a gripper head, with the help of which different configurations of piece goods can be grasped and repositioned. This means that individual piece goods or pairs of piece goods or groups of several piece goods can be handled. This should preferably be possible without any conversion effort. In addition, one aim of the invention is to provide a corresponding manipulation method that can be used for the most diverse piece goods configurations.

These objectives are achieved by the subject matter of the independent claims. Features of advantageous developments can be found in the respective dependent claims.

To achieve the stated aim or at least some aspects of the aims formulated above, the invention proposes a gripper head for gripping and/or manipulating piece goods, which comprises at least two gripper bars that interact for temporarily gripping a piece of goods or several grouped piece goods and that are arranged on a gripper base of the gripper head. At least one gripper bar can be arranged in a fixed position on the gripper base or can be fixed there or suspended there so that it can move. At least one further gripper bar is suspended so that it can move on the gripper base, so that if there are two gripper bars, at least one is movable, while the other can be fixed or suspended on the gripper base so that it can move. The at least one further gripper bar can thus be moved against the opposite, fixable gripper bar for clamping acceptance of at least one piece of goods if one of the gripper bars is fixable. In the other case, if both of the at least two gripper bars are movable, they can be positioned against each other for the clamped acceptance of at least one piece of goods.

Optionally, the gripper head in its simplest form can comprise at least two gripper bars that work together to temporarily grip a piece of goods or several grouped pieces of goods, which are arranged on the gripper base of the gripper head. In this case, a first of the at least two gripper bars can be fixed in place on the gripper base, while at least one further gripper bar can be movably attached to suspended from the gripper base and can be positioned against the opposite gripper bar for clamping acceptance of at least one piece of goods.

Alternatively to this (i.e. to a fixed arrangement of the first gripper bar), the first gripper bar can also be movably suspended on the gripper head or on its gripper base.

In the gripper head, the additional gripper bar movably suspended on the gripper base can also be regarded as a second gripper bar, which can be moved against the first gripper bar fixed to the gripper base or movably suspended there in order to clamp the acceptance of at least one piece of goods.

In general, the gripper head according to the invention is used to grasp individual or multiple piece goods, groups of piece goods or even multiple groups of piece goods. The gripper head has a first gripper bar and at least one second gripper bar, which can carry out a feed movement to clamp the receipt of at least one piece of goods. If necessary, the gripper head can also have more than two gripper bars, which will be explained in more detail below using specific design variants. Normally, the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar each carry out linear movements as part of the feed movement, which generally means that the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar are each moved in a linear direction as part of the feed movement.

Alternatively, the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar can be pivoted as part of the respective feed movement. In such embodiments, a first pivot axis provided for the first gripper bar and a second pivot axis provided for the second gripper bar can in particular be spaced apart from one another and oriented parallel to one another. If the gripper head is designed as part of a rotating and distributing system described below, the pivot axes can run parallel to the transport direction of at least one horizontal conveyor device of the rotating and distributing system.

The first gripper bar and the second gripper bar (and possibly other gripper bars, see below) can each be gripper jaws, tong-shaped gripper arms, metal sheets or other gripping structures. Alternatively or in addition to this, the first gripper bar and/or the second gripper bar (and possibly another or third gripper bar) can each have a profile and/or reversibly elastically deformable elements that are used for Surface contact with the respective piece goods to be clamped is prepared. With such embodiments, the risk of the respective piece goods to be clamped being damaged by contact with a gripper bar can be reduced.

If the first gripper bar and/or the second gripper bar (and possibly a further or third gripper bar) each have profiles, the static friction between the first gripper bar and/or the second gripper bar (and/or the further or third gripper bar) and the at least one piece of goods being clamped is increased, which can reduce the risk that the at least one piece of goods being clamped via the first gripper bar and the second (or third) gripper bar will unintentionally become detached from the gripper head. The features of the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar (or the further or third gripper bar) used and referred to here are therefore to be understood comprehensively in this case; these features are intended in principle to include any construction that is suitable for clamping the receipt of piece goods.

In addition, the gripper head preferably comprises a support bar suspended from the gripper base and located between the two movable gripper bars, which is particularly suitable for separating at least two piece goods or two groups of piece goods from one another and supporting them against one another when they have been clamped by the gripper bars positioned against one another.

If such a support bar is present, it is located between the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar. In addition, there is a gripper base on which the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar (and possibly the third gripper bar) as well as the at least one support bar are arranged.

The at least one support bar is optionally fixed or can be secured to the gripper base. Alternatively, the support bar can be suspended movably from the gripper base and its position on the gripper base can thus be changed as required. The suspension can, for example, be such that the position of the support bar can adapt to the at least one piece of goods gripped by the gripper bars or to the positions of several pieces of goods, which can result in a variable positioning of the support bar that avoids the at least one piece of goods gripped by the gripper bars. The at least one support strip can be formed by at least one sheet metal construction or by at least one separating sheet. Furthermore, the at least one support strip and the first gripper strip as well as the second gripper strip (and possibly third or further gripper strip) can be oriented parallel or substantially parallel to one another or at least partially aligned with one another.

The gripper head can be designed to grasp piece goods, which can in particular be beverage containers. Such a beverage container can comprise several beverage bottles and/or several beverage cans, which are held together and held together by at least one packaging means.

With such a gripper head, pairs of piece goods or groups of several piece goods, but also the aforementioned beverage containers, can be clamped, picked up, rotated, moved and transferred to a defined destination in a predetermined target position. Normally, such a design variant of the gripper head is useful for so-called two-lane operation, in which individual piece goods or, if necessary, piece goods located in two rows or regular groupings of several piece goods can be gripped one after the other on two parallel tracks by feeding movements of the gripper bars movably suspended on the gripper base in order to carry out the intended manipulation movements with which the pair of piece goods grasped in each case or the groupings of several piece goods can be transferred to the intended target positions with the respective predetermined target orientation.

In order to enable these manipulation steps to be repeated in the same or in a different way, the gripper head and the gripper base connected to it are sensibly movable in space, which at the same time also defines a movement space for the gripper head, which is realized by the design of the existing suspension of the gripper head. For example, the gripper head can be part of a grouping system and for this purpose can be movably suspended from a portal system that is typically movable in three defined axes, so that the gripper head can be moved along the three axes within its structurally limited movement space above a transport plane or a support plane for the piece goods positioned there and to be repositioned in the intended manner. The three axes of such a portal system are usually oriented orthogonally to one another in space, so that such a movement principle can also be described as mobility along in particular horizontal x- and y-axes and a particularly vertical z-axis.

All of these axes have limitations for the gripper head in that, with regard to its respective linear range, it can only be moved within the structural limits of the portal system before it reaches mechanical stops or control-defined end positions of its linear mobility. In combination, all of these linear limitations result in the total movement space for the gripper head. In addition, the gripper base can normally also be rotated on the gripper head about a vertical axis of rotation in order to not only move the piece goods, but also to rotate them in connection with their intended positioning. The gripper base that can be rotated in this way is often also referred to as the rotating tool head of a rotation and distribution system and can therefore also be considered as such a tool head here.

In addition to the portal system mentioned as an example, suspension systems that function according to a parallel kinematics principle and are often also referred to as tripod robots or tripod suspensions are also suitable for gripper head suspensions that can be positioned within a defined three-dimensional movement space and, if necessary, also carry out rotational movements there.

Suspension systems that use multi-axis robots to control movement are also conceivable. Alternatively, the gripper head can also be suspended from an articulated arm robot.

As already explained above, a support bar can be arranged between the two movable gripper bars, in particular one that is arranged in a movable or displaceable manner on the gripper base, which separates the piece goods from one another when they are gripped between the movable gripper bars and supports them against one another. This support bar can be designed in particular as a separating plate and can optionally also be referred to as a separating blade or similar. In two-lane operation with parallel piece goods feed or with multi-row piece goods positioning at the takeover location, the two gripping elements are each moved from both sides against the separating blade so that this fixes two piece goods or two piece goods groups and separates them from one another when the movable gripper bars are moved against the piece goods or piece goods groups from the outside. It makes sense for the separating plate in the gripper head, which can form the support bar, to be relatively thin so that when a large number of items are manipulated one after the other, no gaps are created between the items being picked up at the same time. Such gaps would be disadvantageous, for example, in connection with the compilation of layer patterns, as it could affect the layer pattern and also have a detrimental effect on the further transport of the layer patterns compiled in this way.

In one embodiment of the gripper head according to the invention, in addition to a first gripper bar fixed in place to the gripper base, two further gripper bars can be movably suspended from the gripper base, whereby these two further gripper bars are also referred to as the second gripper bar and the third gripper bar in local parlance in the interest of better assignability.

In this variant of the gripper head, the second movable gripper bar and the third movable gripper bar can be positioned against each other in order to grasp and clamp at least two separate piece goods or two separate groups of piece goods between them.

The second movable gripper bar, which is also used for single-lane operation and can be positioned at the back against the fixed first gripper bar, can preferably be dimensioned somewhat more sturdily in order to be able to bear loads on both sides. Such more stable bars are usually also dimensioned somewhat wider. Since smaller center distances are generally required when grouping two containers in the subsequent pre-grouping process, the design selected here with a comparatively thin separating plate and a somewhat wider second bar with two directions of action can be used advantageously.

In this variant of the gripper head, it is useful to have a support bar fixed to the gripper base between the two movable gripper bars, which separates the pieces of goods gripped between the movable gripper bars and supports them against each other. This support bar can be designed in particular as a separating plate and can optionally also be referred to as a separating blade or similar. In two-lane operation with parallel piece of goods feed or with multi-row piece of goods positioning at the takeover point, the two gripping elements are each held against the Separating blade moves so that it fixes two piece goods or two piece goods groups and separates them from each other when the movable gripper bars are moved against the piece goods or piece goods groups from the outside.

The gripper head according to the invention can also be designed in such a way that the support bar movably suspended on the gripper base can rest against one of the two movable gripper bars when gripping a single piece of goods or when gripping several grouped piece of goods that are in contact with each other and cannot be separated from each other when gripping, whereby it becomes inoperative if necessary and is pressed against the piece of goods clamped between the gripper bars or the clamped group of piece of goods by means of the contact surface of the gripper bar to which it has rested.

In order to enable this variability of the gripper head, the support bar is preferably suspended from the gripper base in a movable manner. In this case, it is particularly useful to provide aligned or opposite parallel directions of movement for the two gripper bars that can be moved against each other and the support bar. For example, the support bar and the gripper bars can be mounted within a common horizontal rail on the gripper base, in which they can be moved relative to or against each other.

In this way, a gripper head can be provided in which the support bar, which is movably suspended on the gripper base, can be variably assigned to one of the gripper bars, whereby pairs of piece goods or individual piece goods can be gripped as desired. In the first case, the support bar can fulfil its separating function in order to prevent the two piece goods or the two piece goods groups from slipping into each other, which can also be referred to as nesting. In the second case, the support bar gets in the way and can be placed on one of the gripper bars in order not to collide with the individual piece goods or the piece goods pairing or grouping that cannot be divided.

Preferably, in the gripper head according to the invention, the support bar can be coupled in its adjustment movements to the gripper bar to which it can be applied as required. For example, it can be provided that the support bar can be returned to a central position on the gripper base or on the gripper head in an unloaded state with the aid of a spring. Optionally, it can also be provided that the adjustment movements of the support bar can be coupled to an opening or return movement of one of the gripper bars and can thus be reset to its middle position on the gripper base or on the gripper head.

A further embodiment of the gripper head according to the invention can provide that the support bar has a profiled active surface on at least one side, which corresponds to a surface profile of one of the gripper bars. In this way, it can be provided that the profiled active surface of the support bar can be at least partially immersed in the active surface of the gripper bar as soon as it is placed there. A comparable effect can be achieved, for example, by corresponding grid contours of the support bar and the gripper bar, which can immerse themselves in one another, so that the support bar becomes inoperative when placed on the gripper bar and no longer contacts the piece goods.

According to a further embodiment of the gripper head according to the invention, the at least one support bar can have a reduced reach compared to the first gripper bar and compared to the second gripper bar (as well as compared to a third gripper bar if present), starting from the gripper base. As a result, the at least one support bar can provide a contact surface for several piece goods received in a clamped manner if the gripper head is at a height level during a clamped receipt of piece goods at which the at least one support bar reaches the piece goods to be received in a clamped manner and can thereby dip between adjacent piece goods to be received in a clamped manner.

In addition, in this embodiment variant, the at least one support bar can be brought to a further height level due to the reduced range, at which the at least one support bar does not reach at least one piece of goods to be received, but the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar (and any third gripper bar present) can still come into surface contact with the piece of goods to be received in a clamped manner due to their greater range when the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar (and any third gripper bar present) carry out a feed movement. If the respective at least one piece of goods is clamped via the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar (and/or via the third gripper bar present), the at least one support bar can be located above the at least one piece of goods that is clamped. In practice, it may already be sufficient if a range of the at least one support bar is only slightly reduced compared to a range of the first gripper bar and compared to a range of the second gripper bar (and possibly compared to a range of a third gripper bar), starting from the gripper base. Alternatively or in addition to this, the range of the at least one support bar starting from the gripper base may be reduced by at least a third compared to a range of the first gripper bar and compared to a range of the second gripper bar (and/or a third gripper bar). Alternatively or in addition to this, the at least one support bar starting from the gripper base may also have a reduced range, which reduced range is less than, for example, approximately five centimeters.

Embodiments have also proven useful in which the at least one support strip is arranged on the gripper base in such a way that the at least one support strip detaches itself from the gripper base when the at least one support strip is placed on a piece of goods. This can prevent the gripper from being damaged by inaccurate or incorrect positioning. Such a protective or safety measure can apply to all of the embodiments of the gripper head mentioned here that provide a support strip or a separating plate.

The gripper head can be designed to grasp piece goods that are beverage containers. Such a beverage container can comprise several beverage bottles and/or several beverage cans that are held together by at least one packaging means.

In various embodiments, the gripper head can have exactly one support bar or only one support bar that is fixed to the gripper base at a predetermined position and cannot be adjusted. Thus, exactly one support bar can be fixed to the predetermined position on the gripper base. The predetermined position can be designed in such a way that exactly one support bar has at least approximately an identical distance from the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar when exactly one support bar is fixed to the gripper base at the predetermined position and cannot be adjusted or is fixed to the gripper base.

In alternative embodiments, the gripper head can comprise at least two support strips or exactly two support strips, which are located between the first gripper strip and the second gripper strip (or a third one, if present). gripper bar) and which each have a reduced range from the base compared to the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar (or a third gripper bar). The reduced ranges of the at least two support bars or the reduced ranges of the exactly two support bars can be identical starting from the gripper base. The at least two support bars or the exactly two support bars can each be adjustable in a linear direction along the gripper base. In particular, the at least two support bars or the exactly two support bars can be adjustable in a linear direction along the gripper base in such a way that the at least two support bars or the exactly two support bars are pushed together with piece goods when the first gripper bar and the second gripper bar (or the third gripper bar, if present) carry out a feed movement.

As already mentioned above, in the gripper head according to the invention the gripper bars can each be formed by gripper jaws or equipped with gripper jaws that can be positioned against the piece goods to be gripped. Optionally, the gripper bars can be equipped with profiles, non-slip coatings or the like on their contact surfaces that can be positioned against the piece goods, optionally also with attachments made of elastic material that improves adhesion to the contacted piece goods side walls, formed for example by elastically flexible plastic or rubber elements. These optional profiles are sensibly matched to the corresponding profile of the movable support plate, so that this can preferably be immersed within the profile of one of the two gripper bars, provided it is not required for single-lane operation or for clamping grip of just one piece of goods.

In a simple design variant, the gripper bars referred to here and to be regarded as functional elements can also be designed as flat sheet metal paddles or the like, in particular if lifting the piece goods after they have been clamped between the gripper bars is not absolutely necessary, but the manipulation step is essentially to be carried out by a shifting and/or rotating movement, in which the underside of the piece goods to be rotated and/or shifted can be dragged or slipped over the support plane or transport plane.

As already described above, the gripper head according to the invention can in particular be a movable and piece goods manipulating component of a turning and distribution system for moving along a transport route or for a support level. In this respect, the rotation and distribution system described here for piece goods moved along a transport route or standing on a staging area with at least one gripper head according to one of the previously described embodiments forms just as much a part of the invention as the gripper head itself, since the rotation and distribution system contains this gripper head as a handling tool that manipulates the piece goods.

The gripper head is arranged above the transport path together with the gripper base, which is held in particular adjustable or rotatable on the gripper head, and the two gripper bars arranged there, as well as the movable support bar in between. The gripper base or the carrier element for the gripper bars is/are mounted rotatably or otherwise movably on a holder or tool head, which is often also referred to as TCP (Tool Center Point). In this way, piece goods can be grasped in different orientations or rotational positions and grasped piece goods can in turn be rotated and brought into a desired target orientation for placement in the desired target position, which can be done by rotating the gripper base together with the gripper bars arranged on it and the piece goods clamped with them.

In the rotating and distributing system according to the invention, the gripper head can preferably be suspended in a movable manner above the transport route or the provisioning area for the piece goods and can be positioned within a defined movement space, so that this arrangement can result in a grouping station for piece goods.

While previously known gripper heads for forming pallet layers usually use a gripper head with two movable clamping jaws so that only a single piece of goods or bundles or only a single row of a lane can be gripped, the gripper head according to the invention allows universal use for single or multi-lane operation. For example, with high machine outputs it may be desirable to grip and move two or more rows of bundles or piece goods from adjacent lanes with the rotation and distribution system or with the gripper heads used here.

In this case, an additional separating plate is usually used in the gripper head. This separating plate is generally intended to prevent the containers or piece goods from neighboring rows from nesting, shifting or sliding into each other when they are picked up and moved or rotated. Nesting or moving the items or containers is disadvantageous because this reduces the width of the containers and the containers may no longer be able to be clamped by the gripper during the manipulation process during rotation or movement and thus may not reach their calculated position or may even slip out of the gripper. In practice, the separating plates should be relatively thin so as not to cause any disruptive effects when the layers are formed.

The present invention, however, allows the variable use of a gripper head for manipulating individual piece goods without the need for a format change within a handling or packaging machine. The separating plate that is movable between the gripper bars that can be positioned against each other allows the movable gripper bars to be used in different ways in order to function either as a double gripper or as a single gripper.

When manipulating the piece goods or containers with a double grip, the piece goods or containers are clamped in the usual way using the divider plate or the central support bar, so that this support bar is used between the two rows of containers or piece goods and can effectively prevent the piece goods or containers on the right and left lanes from slipping or nesting. The force connection is achieved by the lateral introduction of the clamping force through the left row of containers or piece goods onto the divider plate or the support bar towards the right row of containers or piece goods and vice versa.

When manipulating the piece goods or containers with a simple grip, the required clamping force is applied in the same way, whereby the support bar is moved against one of the gripper bars or one of the gripper paddles and may dip into it, so that the support bar or the separating plate is not functional.

Optionally, the gripper bars can be suspended in a known manner and anchored to the gripper base in such a way that they can give way or be decoupled if the load is too high. The same applies in principle to the separating plate or the central support bar, which can be removed without tools if necessary. These parts can be decoupled from their suspensions in the event of accidental collisions with piece goods in order to avoid damage to both the gripper head and the piece goods.

Overall, a very compact gripper head is provided, in which no additional working space is lost due to an additional gripper bar. The rotating and distributing system for piece goods according to the invention comprises at least one gripper head according to at least one of the previously described embodiments. Such a rotating and distributing system can have at least one industrial robot on which the at least one gripper head is arranged, wherein the at least one industrial robot can be a gantry robot and/or a delta kinematic robot. Optionally, the industrial robot can also be an articulated arm robot or a robot that works in another way.

Furthermore, the rotation and distribution system can comprise at least one horizontal conveyor device, via which piece goods can be moved into a working area of the at least one gripper head. The rotation and distribution system can be configured and equipped for handling the at least one gripper head in such a way that the at least one piece of goods maintains surface contact with the at least one horizontal conveyor device when being clamped and manipulated via the gripper head.

In addition, embodiments have proven successful in which the rotation and distribution system comprises a control device and at least one horizontal conveyor device, via which at least one horizontal conveyor device piece goods can be moved into a working area of the at least one gripper head. The at least one gripper head can be controlled via the control device in such a way that

- the at least one gripper head can form an arrangement from a large number of piece goods, which arrangement is adapted to a palletizable layer to be formed from the large number of piece goods, in that the at least one gripper head repeatedly receives and manipulates at least one piece of goods moved into its working area to form a respective arrangement. In addition, the control device can be designed in such a way that

- the control device selects a specific height level from several different height levels for a respective clamped acceptance of the respective at least one piece of goods and controls the gripper head for receiving the respective at least one piece of goods at the specific and selected height level. The arrangement can be designed in such a way that a complete palletizable layer can be formed from the arrangement by pushing the plurality of piece goods of the arrangement together.

Furthermore, embodiments are conceivable in which the rotation and distribution system comprises a control device and at least one horizontal conveyor device, via which at least one horizontal conveyor device piece goods can be moved into a working area of the at least one gripper head. The control device can be designed such that the gripper head is brought to a first height level at the instigation of the control device when several piece goods to be received together via the gripper head are adjacent perpendicular to a transport direction of the at least one horizontal conveyor device. In addition, the control device can be designed such that the gripper head is brought to a second height level at the instigation of the control device when exactly one piece goods is to be received via the gripper head or when only several piece goods arranged in alignment one behind the other along a transport direction of the at least one horizontal conveyor device are to be received together via the gripper head, wherein the distance of the gripper head to the at least one horizontal conveyor device in the second height level is designed to be larger than the distance of the gripper head to the at least one horizontal conveyor device in the first height level.

For example, it is conceivable that different horizontal conveyors are provided, whereby the gripper head only receives piece goods from a first horizontal conveyor at the first height level and only receives piece goods from a second horizontal conveyor at the second height level. It is also possible for a gripper head to form a first arrangement of piece goods that is adapted to a palletizable position and only receives piece goods at the first height level from the at least one horizontal conveyor by clamping. The gripper head can then form a second arrangement of piece goods that is adapted to a palletizable position and only receives piece goods at the second height level of which receive at least one horizontal conveyor device in a clamped manner. Such embodiments are particularly suitable if a mixed pallet is to be produced jointly from the first arrangement and the second arrangement.

In particular, the distance of the gripper head to the at least one horizontal conveyor device in the second height level can be designed such that the at least one support bar does not reach the respective at least one piece of goods to be received, whereas the distance of the gripper head to the at least one horizontal conveyor device in the first height level is designed such that piece of goods are in surface contact with the at least one support bar when the respective piece of goods are clamped and received via the gripper head.

In order to achieve at least some partial aspects of the objectives formulated above, the invention proposes, in addition to the gripper head described above in different embodiments and in addition to the rotation and distribution system also described above in some aspects, a method for grasping and manipulating piece goods, wherein this method can be carried out in particular using a gripper head such as that described above in different, partly also alternative, embodiments.

In the method according to the invention, piece goods are manipulated using the gripper head in that a piece of goods or several grouped piece goods are at least temporarily grasped by means of two interacting and approaching or mutually adjustable gripper bars of the gripper head in order to be transported from a receiving or receiving location to a destination, whereby with this manipulation step not only the location of the piece goods but also their orientation in space can be changed.

A first of the gripper bars can be fixed in place on the gripper base of the gripper head or can be suspended there so that it can move. At least one further gripper bar is suspended so that it can move on the gripper base. The at least one further gripper bar can thus be positioned against the opposite, fixable gripper bar for the clamped receipt of at least one piece of goods, or alternatively the at least two movable gripper bars can be positioned against each other for the clamped receipt of at least one piece of goods. A support bar located between the at least two movable gripper bars that can be moved against each other or between the gripper bars, one of which can be fixed to the gripper base, serves to separate at least two gripped piece goods from each other and to support them against each other, namely those gripped piece goods that are currently being clamped by the gripper bars that are moved against each other. In the method, it is provided that the support bar is either fixable to the gripper base or movably suspended from the gripper base, whereby its current position can be adapted to the gripping situation of the at least one piece of goods gripped by the gripper bars or to the gripping situation or the positions of several piece of goods, which in the case of a movable support bar can also include the support bar moving out of the way if its middle position would collide with piece goods or if, for other reasons, its position has to make way for the at least one piece of goods gripped by the gripper bars.

According to a variant of the method, a first of the gripper bars can be fixed in a stationary manner to the gripper base, while at least one further gripper bar is movably suspended from the gripper base and is advanced against the opposite gripper bar for clamping receipt of at least one piece of goods.

In the method, the further gripper bar movably suspended on the gripper base can be formed in particular by a second gripper bar, which is respectively advanced against the first gripper bar fixed in place on the gripper base for the clamping acceptance of at least one piece of goods.

In addition, a method variant can provide that in addition to the first gripper bar fixed in place on the gripper base, two further gripper bars are movably suspended on the gripper base, formed by a second gripper bar and a third gripper bar.

In this way, the second movable gripper bar and the third movable gripper bar can be moved towards each other, whereby at least two separate piece goods or two separate groups of piece goods are grasped and clamped between the second and third gripper bars.

Optionally, in a further process variant, a support bar can be arranged fixedly on the gripper base between the two movable gripper bars, which can separate the piece goods gripped between the movable gripper bars and support them against each other. This allows In two-lane operation, the two gripping elements are moved from both sides against the separating blade or the support bar, so that two piece goods or two groups of piece goods can be fixed and separated from each other by the separating blade or the support bar.

In some of the process variants described here, there is a support bar between the two movable gripper bars, which is movable and/or adjustable parallel to the feed movements of the gripper bars and which can be arranged on the gripper base. When piece goods are gripped between the movable gripper bars, this support bar can separate them from each other and support them against each other. In a two-lane operation, the two gripping elements can be moved from both sides against the separating blade or the support bar, so that two piece goods or two groups of piece goods can be fixed and separated from each other by the separating blade or the support bar.

The method can therefore optionally provide that the support bar movably suspended on the gripper base is placed against one of the two movable gripper bars when gripping a single piece of goods or several grouped pieces of goods that are in contact with each other and/or cannot be separated from each other. To make this possible, the support bar is movably suspended on the gripper base. It can also be advantageous if the two gripper bars that can be moved against each other and the support bar can move in aligned or opposite parallel directions.

The method can also provide that the support bar, which is movably suspended on the gripper base, can be spatially assigned to one of the gripper bars during feed movements of the gripper bars. It can therefore also be useful to couple the support bar in its adjustment movements to the gripper bar to which it can be optionally placed.

A further variant of the method according to the invention can provide that the support bar can be returned to a central position on the gripper base or on the gripper head in an unloaded state with the aid of a spring. However, it is also conceivable if the adjustment movements of the support bar are coupled to an opening or return movement of one of the gripper bars and the support bar can thus be returned to its central position on the gripper base or on the gripper head.

In one embodiment of the method according to the invention for grasping and manipulating piece goods via at least one gripper head according to a In the embodiment of the previous description, piece goods are moved into a working area of the at least one gripper head via at least one horizontal conveyor. The at least one gripper head then receives at least one piece of goods in a clamped manner by means of a feed movement of its first gripper bar and its second gripper bar and then manipulates the at least one piece of goods received in a clamped manner. It is further provided that the at least one gripper head adjusts its height level as required for the clamped reception of the at least one piece of goods, so that the at least one support bar of the gripper head is optionally in surface contact with the piece of goods received in a clamped manner after the at least one piece of goods has been clamped or does not reach the at least one piece of goods received in a clamped manner.

In this process, the piece goods may be beverage containers.

It may also be the case that the at least one piece of goods received in a clamped manner is rotated and/or displaced obliquely to the transport direction of the at least one horizontal conveyor during the manipulation, wherein a surface contact between the respective at least one piece of goods received in a clamped manner and the at least one horizontal conveyor is maintained throughout the manipulation or wherein the respective at least one piece of goods received in a clamped manner does not lose its surface contact with the at least one horizontal conveyor during the manipulation.

Furthermore, the gripper head can form an arrangement from a large number of piece goods, which arrangement is tailored to a palletizable layer to be formed from the large number of piece goods. To form the respective arrangement, the gripper head can clamp and manipulate at least one piece of goods moved into its working area several times. A control device can select a specific height level from several different height levels for each clamping reception of the respective at least one piece of goods and control the gripper head, which clamps the respective at least one piece of goods at the specific selected height level.

Again, in the method according to the invention, the gripper bars can each be formed by gripper jaws or equipped with gripper jaws that are designed to the piece goods to be picked up can be delivered. Optionally, the support bar can have a profiled effective surface that corresponds to a surface profile of one of the gripper bars. In this way, it can be provided that the profiled effective surface of the support bar can at least partially immerse itself in the effective surface of the gripper bar as soon as it is placed there.

If they can be combined with one another in a meaningful way from the point of view of the person skilled in the art, some or all of the aforementioned variations or embodiments of the method and/or device according to the invention can optionally also be combined with one another in order to at least partially achieve the aim(s) formulated above and/or to achieve the desired effect of the invention.

The present invention allows a high degree of flexibility in layer formation, since the existing gripper head can handle both single-lane and dual-lane operation in any alternation.

When we talk about piece goods in this context, these can be cuboid-shaped packages. However, piece goods can also be in the form of containers or other packaging units with several individual items combined together, where it can be useful, particularly in two-lane operation, to use dividers to separate piece goods or packaging units that are collected at the same time. Otherwise, there could be a risk of the containers, which are not smooth on the outside, being pushed into one another, which could lead to unwanted changes in position.

It should be expressly mentioned at this point that all aspects and design variants that were explained in connection with the gripper head according to the invention or the rotation and distribution system according to the invention equally relate to or can form partial aspects of the method according to the invention for manipulating piece goods. Therefore, if at one point in the description or in the claim definitions for the gripper head according to the invention or for the rotation and distribution system according to the invention certain aspects and/or relationships and/or effects are mentioned, this applies equally to the method according to the invention.

The same applies in reverse, so that all aspects and variants of embodiment that are related to the method according to the invention explained, equally relate to or can be partial aspects of the gripper head according to the invention or of the rotation and distribution system according to the invention. Therefore, if at one point in the description or in the claim definitions for the method according to the invention for manipulating piece goods, certain aspects and/or relationships and/or effects are mentioned, this applies equally to the rotation and distribution system according to the invention or to the gripper head according to the invention.

In the following, embodiments will explain the invention and its advantages in more detail with reference to the attached figures. The size relationships of the individual elements to one another in the figures do not always correspond to the actual size relationships, since some shapes are simplified and other shapes are shown enlarged in relation to other elements for better illustration.

Fig. 1A shows a perspective view of a first embodiment of a gripper head for the simultaneous gripping of two piece goods or two groups of piece goods.

Fig. 1B shows a further perspective view of another variant of the gripper head for the simultaneous gripping of two piece goods or two groups of piece goods.

Fig. 2A shows a schematic front view of a third variant of a gripper head according to the invention for simultaneously gripping and manipulating two piece goods or two groups of piece goods.

Fig. 2B shows a schematic front view of the gripper head according to Fig. 2A, which in this configuration grasps a single piece of goods or a single group of pieces of goods.

Fig. 3A shows a schematic front view of a fourth variant of the gripper head according to Fig. 2A, which in this configuration is intended for gripping two piece goods.

Fig. 3B shows the gripper head from Fig. 3A in a perspective and schematic view.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic front view of a fifth variant of a gripper head according to the invention for gripping and manipulating piece goods. Fig. 5A shows a schematic front view of a sixth variant of the gripper head, which in this configuration grips two piece goods.

Fig. 5B shows a schematic front view of the sixth variant of the gripper head according to Fig. 5A, which in this configuration only grips one piece of goods.

Figures 6A and 6B each show schematic front views of a seventh embodiment of the gripper head according to the invention and a first embodiment of a rotation and distribution system according to the invention.

Figures 7A and 7B show schematic front views of an eighth embodiment of a gripper head according to the invention and a second embodiment of a rotation and distribution system according to the invention.

Fig. 8 shows a ninth embodiment of a gripper head according to the invention, as it can be provided as a component in various embodiments of a rotation and distribution system according to the invention.

Fig. 9 shows a flow chart of steps as they can be provided individually or according to the combination shown in various embodiments of the method according to the invention.

The figures explained below generally use the same reference numbers for identical or identically acting elements of the invention. For the sake of clarity, only those reference numbers are shown in the individual figures that are necessary for the description of the respective figure. The embodiments shown are merely examples of how the gripper head according to the invention or the method according to the invention for manipulating piece goods can be designed and do not represent an exhaustive limitation.

The perspective representations of Figures 1A and 1B illustrate the basic structure of various gripper heads 10, as their function in two-lane operation is explained in the schematic front view of Figure 2A. Each of the gripper heads 10 shown as examples in Figures 1A and 1B has two gripper bars 12 and 14 that can be moved against each other, as well as a support bar 16 in the form of a separating plate 18 located centrally between them. The gripper bar 12 on the left in Figures 1A and 1B is also referred to below as the first gripper bar 12, while the gripper bar 14 on the right in Figures 1A and 1B is also referred to as the second gripper bar 14. While the variant according to Fig. 1A is to be referred to here as the first embodiment variant of a gripper head 10, Fig. 1B illustrates a second embodiment variant of the gripper head 10.

The two gripper bars 12 and 14, which can be moved against each other, as well as the support bar 16 or the separating plate 18, are each suspended from a horizontal support, which in turn can be mounted rotatably on a rod (not shown here) of a tripod (i.e. a parallel kinematics robot), on a gantry suspension, on an articulated arm robot or similar suspension. In this context, the horizontal support is also referred to as the gripper base 20, because the essential functional elements of the gripper head 10 are suspended and mounted there. The gripper base 20 therefore represents part of the overall construction of the gripper head 10.

The two gripper heads 10 shown in Figures 1A and 1B do not differ fundamentally from one another in terms of their functionality, but have some different structural details, such as the design and shape of the gripper bars 12, 14 and their respective contact surfaces with the piece goods (not shown here; but see Fig. 2A). The gripper bars 12 and 14 can be equipped with either elastically flexible horizontal pairs of bars (Fig. 1A) or with vertical rows of bars (Fig. 1B) in order to grasp and grip the piece goods and in particular to prevent the grasped and gripped piece goods from slipping out of the gripper bars 12 and 14 which are positioned against one another during their transfer or repositioning.

The relatively thin and thus somewhat flexible separating plate 18, which forms the support bar 16, is suspended centrally on the carrier of the gripper base 20 and, in use, supports the two gripped items of goods against each other when the gripper bars 12 and 14 are moved against each other from the outside (see Fig. 2A). The horizontal movement of the two gripper bars 12 and 14 is indicated by the horizontal double arrows below the gripper bars 12 and 14 respectively. In the area of these double arrows there can be support levels, transport levels or provision areas for the items of goods located there and/or provided or transported there, so that they can be clamped and picked up by the gripper heads 10 in order to reposition them and, if necessary, rotate them in order to, for example, place the items of goods in a intended layer pattern for a subsequent stacking process or for palletizing.

Optional electrical drive elements 22 for the feed movements of the gripper bars 12 and 14 are only shown in the embodiment of the gripper head 10 shown in Fig. 1A. Optionally, the feed movements in the embodiment of the gripper head 10 shown in Fig. 1B can be triggered by means of mechanical transmission elements not shown in detail here, but optionally also by means of an electric motor drive, which is also not shown here.

It should be clarified at this point that the design details visible in Figures 1A and 1B, including the arrangement and movement options of the gripper bars 12 and 14, as well as the possibly greater stability and/or flexural rigidity of the support bar 16 in individual cases, can essentially also be present in the gripper heads 10 according to the invention explained below (cf. Figures 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 7A, 7B and 8) in the same way, without this having to be shown in detail in the Figures 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 7A, 7B and 8 explained below.

The schematic front view of Fig. 2A illustrates by way of example the use of the gripper head 10 according to the invention, which can be used to grasp and manipulate, in particular, cuboid-shaped piece goods 24. Fig. 2A thus shows a third embodiment of the gripper head 10.

In order that the piece goods 24 can be grasped by the gripper head 10 by feed movements of the gripper bars 12 and 14 movably arranged on the gripper base 20, at least their side surfaces 26 are aligned approximately vertically and thus parallel to the surface orientation of the gripper bars 12 and 14 grasping and gripping the piece goods 24.

Fig. 2A shows two equally sized piece goods 24 which are gripped by the gripper bars 12 and 14 which can be moved towards one another. However, the gripper head 10 can also be dimensioned such that it can simultaneously grip grouped pairs of piece goods or groups with three or more piece goods 24 arranged in alignment in a row, although this is not illustrated in more detail here. According to the present invention, the third embodiment of the gripper head 10, illustrated in schematic front views in Figures 2A and 2B, can be used either for two-lane operation (Fig. 2A) or for single-lane operation (Fig. 2B). To make this possible, the gripper bars 12 and 14 are each movably suspended on the gripper base 20 and can be positioned against each other in order to grasp and clamp two separate items of goods 24 between them or possibly two separate groups of items (which cannot be seen here due to the graphic representation).

Between the two movable gripper bars 12 and 14, which can be moved against each other, there is the vertical support bar 16, which can be moved or fixed to the gripper base 20 as desired. When the piece goods 24 are gripped between the movable gripper bars 12 and 14, this support bar separates them from each other and supports them against each other. This vertically running support bar 16 can be designed in particular as a relatively thin-walled separating plate 18, but can also optionally be referred to as a separating blade or the like according to its intended function, since when the gripper head 10 is lowered, it penetrates between the piece goods 24 which are standing close to each other and separates them from each other when the gripper bars 12, 14 are moved towards each other.

The depth of the separating plate 18 or the support strip 16 can correspond approximately to the vertical length of the gripper strips 12 and 14 in the first embodiment of the gripper head 10 shown in Figures 1A to 2B, but can also be slightly shorter as shown in Figures 2A and 2B, since reliable clamping of the piece goods 24 is ensured even with a slightly smaller immersion depth between two adjacent piece goods 24 or pairs or rows of piece goods.

Preferably, however, the support bar 16 extends at least a short distance below the respective centers of gravity 28 of the piece goods 24 to be gripped, so that these are not easily tilted against each other during a feed movement of the gripper bars 12 and 14 due to a possibly very short support bar 16 and do not come into contact with each other in the lower areas of their mutually facing side surfaces 26. Such contact of the piece goods 24 is not useful in the interest of precise handling of the piece goods 24, at least in the case of a separating blade or separating plate 18 that has a certain material thickness and inherent stability against bending. The horizontal extension of the support strip 16 or the separating plate 18, which cannot be illustrated here due to the graphic representation as a front view, is sensibly based on the corresponding length of the piece goods, so that the length of the support strip 16 in the horizontal direction (in the direction out of the drawing plane or into it) can possibly be somewhat less than the corresponding length of the piece goods that is to be supported with the support strip 16. The perspective views of Figures 1A and 1B show such a dimensioning of the support strip 16 formed by the separating plate 18.

The gripper base 20, which is shown very schematically here by a horizontal bar, can be a support component, a base or a cross member or the like, wherein the gripper base 20 can in particular be suspended in a rotatable manner on a suspension of a manipulation device that can be moved in space, so that the piece goods 24 to be grasped can be received from a transport level or a preparation area 30 with a horizontal support level 32 and brought to a destination by the gripper bars 12 and 14 clampingly grasping the piece goods 24 by a feed movement and releasing them again at the intended destination (not shown here).

In two-lane operation and in the position of the gripper bars 12 and 14 in which they are positioned against each other as shown in Fig. 2A, the two gripper bars 12 and 14 clamp the items 24 located between them, so that the clamping or holding forces 34, which are indicated by horizontal arrows in Fig. 2A and Fig. 2B, act on the opposite vertical side surfaces 26 of the clamped items 24 contacted by the gripper bars 12, 14. In the same way, these clamping or holding forces 34 act in the opposite direction as counterforces from the support bar 16 on the opposite side surfaces 26 of the items 24 separated and supported by the support bar 16.

Fig. 2A clearly shows that the centrally positioned support bar 16 fulfils its intended separating function in two-lane operation when receiving two adjacent piece goods 24 or groups of piece goods and for this purpose is in contact with the mutually facing side surfaces 26 of the piece goods 24 standing next to each other on the staging area 30 or moved on a surface 32 of a horizontal conveyor device. However, this changes in single-lane operation, which is illustrated in a schematic front view in Fig. 2B. In this case, the gripper head 10 only grasps a single piece of goods 24 or an aligned row of two or more pieces of goods 24, of which only one piece of goods 24 can be shown due to the graphic front view in Fig. 2B. In this case, the support bar 16 changes its function and no longer functions as a separating plate 18, but is moved towards the right gripper bar 14 and placed flat against it.

The only piece of goods 24 to be grasped (or a pair of pieces of goods or a group of pieces of goods) is located approximately in the middle of the staging area 30 and is clamped by means of the two gripper bars 12 and 14 and the support bar 16 placed on the second bar 14 of the two gripper bars 12 or 14. This slightly changes the direction of action of the right (second) gripper bar 14, and this does not grasp the piece of goods 24 with its front-side effective surface, which is now partially covered by the support bar 16, but grasps the piece of goods 24 indirectly via the support bar 16, so that the clamping or holding force 34 is transferred from the right (second) gripper bar 14 to the support bar 16 and from there to the piece of goods 24 to be clamped.

The support bar 16 thus remains largely inoperative in single-lane operation, since it is moved along the longitudinal extension direction of the gripper base 20 to the right (second) gripper bar 14 and is applied there.

In the first to third embodiments of the gripper head 10 according to the invention shown in Figures 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B, the gripper bars 12 and 14 can in particular each be formed by gripper jaws or equipped with gripper jaws that can be positioned against the piece goods 24 to be gripped. Optionally, the gripper bars 12 and 14 can be equipped with profiles, non-slip coatings or the like on their contact surfaces that can be positioned against the side surfaces 26 of the piece goods 24 to be gripped, optionally also with attachments made of elastic material that improves adhesion to the contacted piece goods side walls 26, formed for example by elastically flexible plastic or rubber elements.

Such profiles are illustrated, for example, in the schematic perspective views of Figures 1A and 1B, formed, for example, by horizontal elastic attachments (Fig. 1 A) or by numerous elastic attachments arranged next to one another with vertical Longitudinal profilings (Fig. 1B), so that a non-slip and elastically flexible profiling of the gripper bars 12 and 14 can be provided. Such elastic attachments, as shown in Figures 1A and 1B, can preferably also be provided on the gripper bars 12 and 14 of the variant of the gripper head 10 according to the invention shown in Figures 2A and 2B.

The front view of Fig. 3A and the perspective view of Fig. 3B illustrate a fourth embodiment of the gripper head 10, in which a rotatable suspension 36 for the entire gripper head 10 can be seen on the upper side of the gripper base 20, so that this or its gripper base 20 can be anchored in a rotatable manner, for example, to a portal suspension of a rotation and distribution system not shown here.

The support bar 16, which is arranged approximately centrally in the representations of Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B, can preferably be coupled in its adjustment movements to the gripper bar 12 or 14 to which it can be applied as required (see Fig. 2B). For example, it can be provided that the support bar 16 can be spring-assisted to return to a central position on the gripper base 20 or on the gripper head 10 in an unloaded state. It can also optionally be provided that the adjustment movements of the support bar 16 can be coupled to an opening or return movement of one of the gripper bars 12 or 14 and can thus be returned to its central position on the gripper base 20 or on the gripper head 10.

As can be seen in particular from the perspective view of Fig. 3B, the active surfaces of the gripper bars 12 and 14 can have the rake-like contour shown, wherein the total of six vertically oriented and regularly spaced tines 38 of each gripper bar 12 and 14 can be provided with elastic and anti-slip sheaths in order to be able to grip and grasp the piece goods 24 (not shown here, but see Fig. 3A) better. Optionally, it can be provided that the support bar 16 has a design corresponding to this, so that it can dip into the spaces between the spaced tines 38 when it is placed on one of the gripper bars 12 or 14 (here on the right gripper bar 14) in the manner shown in Fig. 2B. However, this optional design of the separating plate 18, which forms the support bar 16, is not shown here.

The gripper head 10 according to the invention can in particular be a movable component of a rotating and Distribution system for piece goods 24 moved along a transport route or for those located on the support level 32 of the staging area 30. The gripper head 10 is arranged together with the gripper base 20, which is held in particular adjustable or rotatable on the gripper head 10, and the two gripper bars 12 and 14 arranged there and adjustable against each other, above the transport route or above the staging area 30. The gripper base 20 or the carrier element for the gripper bars 12 and 14 is or are preferably mounted rotatably or otherwise movably on a holder or tool head, which is often also referred to as TCP (Tool Center Point). This rotatable suspension can also be seen from the illustrations in Figures 1A and 1B.

In this way, piece goods 24 can be grasped in different orientations or rotational positions and grasped piece goods 24 can be rotated and brought into a desired target orientation for depositing in the desired target position, which can be done by rotating the gripper base 20 together with the gripper bars 12, 14 arranged thereon and the piece goods 24 clamped therewith. Since in the rotating and distribution system according to the invention the gripper head 10 is preferably suspended in a movable manner above the transport route or the provision area 30 for the piece goods 24 and can be positioned within a defined movement space, this arrangement can result in a grouping station for piece goods 24.

The schematic front view of Fig. 4 illustrates a fifth variant of a gripper head 10 according to the invention, which serves to grasp and manipulate piece goods 24. Fig. 4 shows a single grasped piece goods 24. However, the gripper head 10 can also be dimensioned such that it can simultaneously grasp grouped pairs of piece goods or groupings with three or more piece goods 24 arranged in alignment in a row, although this is not illustrated in more detail here.

The fifth embodiment of the gripper head 10 shown in Fig. 4 represents a particularly simplified design in which only two gripper bars 12 and 14 are suspended from the upper gripper base 20. The gripper base 20, which is shown very schematically here by a horizontal bar, can in turn be a support component, a base or a cross member or the like, wherein the gripper base 20 can in particular be suspended rotatably from a spatially movable suspension of a manipulation device (not shown here), so that the piece goods 24 to be grasped can be received from a transport level or a preparation area 30 with a horizontal support level 32 and brought to a destination by the Gripper bars 12 and 14 clamp the item 24 by a feed movement and release it again at the destination (not shown here).

In the fifth embodiment of the gripper head 10 in its simplified design shown in Fig. 4, the second gripper bar 14 is fixed in a stationary manner to the gripper base 20, while the first gripper bar 12 is suspended from the gripper base 20 so as to be movable in the horizontal direction and can be advanced against the fixed second gripper bar 14 for clamping receipt of at least one piece of goods 24. The first gripper bar 12, which is movably suspended on an underside of the gripper base 20 and guided linearly, can be advanced along the horizontal longitudinal extension direction of the gripper base 20 in the direction of the fixed second gripper bar 14 in order to clamp the piece goods 24 to be gripped in the manner shown, so that the clamping or holding forces 34, which are each illustrated by horizontal arrows in Fig. 4, act on the opposite vertical side surfaces 26 of the clamped piece goods 24 contacted by the gripper bars 12 and 14.

It is expedient for the clamping or holding forces 34 to act below the center of gravity 28 of the piece goods 24 so that, after being gripped by the gripper bars 12 and 14, the latter is reliably held and prevented from sliding downwards.

With the gripper head 10 shown in Fig. 4, in particular individual piece goods 24 can be clamped, picked up, rotated, moved and transferred to a defined destination in a predetermined target position. This simplest (fifth) design variant of the gripper head 10 is particularly useful for so-called single-lane operation, in which individual piece goods 24 or possibly pairs of piece goods in a row or regular groupings of several piece goods 24 can be grasped one after the other by feeding movements of the first gripper bar 12 movably suspended on the gripper base 20 against the second gripper bar 14 fixed in the opposite position on the gripper base 20 in order to carry out the intended manipulation movements with which the individual piece goods 24, the grasped pair of piece goods or the grouping of several piece goods 24 can be transferred to the intended target position with the predetermined target orientation.

While the fifth embodiment of the gripper head 10 shown in Fig. 4 is not suitable for multi-lane operation, the embodiment shown in Figures 5A and 5B in The sixth embodiment of the gripper head 10 according to the invention, illustrated in the schematic front views, can be used either for single-lane operation (Fig. 5B) or for two-lane operation (Fig. 5A). To make this possible, in addition to the second gripper bar 14 fixed in place on the gripper base 20, two further gripper bars 12 and 40 are movably suspended on the gripper base 20. The movable first gripper bar 12, already explained using the fifth embodiment (see Fig. 4), is located close to the fixed second gripper bar 14, while the movable third gripper bar 40 is arranged in a more distant position.

In the sixth variant of the gripper head 10 shown in Figures 5A and 5B, the first gripper bar 12, which is movably suspended on the upper gripper base 20, and the third gripper bar 40, which is also movably suspended there, can be moved towards each other in order to grasp and accept in a clamping manner two separate piece goods 24 between them or possibly two separate groups of piece goods (which cannot be seen here due to the graphic representation).

Between the two movable gripper bars 12 and 40, which can be moved towards one another, there is a vertical support bar 16, which is arranged in a fixed position on the gripper base 20 and which separates the piece goods 24 from one another when they are gripped between the movable gripper bars 12 and 40 and supports them against one another. This vertically extending support bar 16 can be designed in particular as a separating plate 18, but can also optionally be referred to as a separating blade or the like according to its intended function, since when the gripper head 10 is lowered it dips between the piece goods 24 which are standing close to one another and separates them from one another when the gripper bars 12 and 40 are moved towards one another.

The depth of the separating plate 18 or the support strip 16 can, in the sixth embodiment shown here, as well as in the fifth embodiment shown in Fig. 4, correspond approximately to the vertical length of the gripper strips 12, 14 and 40, but can also be slightly shorter as shown in Fig. 5A and Fig. 5B (as well as in Fig. 4), since reliable clamping of the piece goods 24 is already ensured even with a slightly smaller immersion depth between two adjacent piece goods 24 or pairs or rows of piece goods. Preferably, however, the support bar 16 extends at least a short distance below the respective centers of gravity 28 of the piece goods 24 to be gripped, so that these are not easily tilted against each other during a feed movement of the gripper bars 12 and 40 due to the possibly very short support bar 16 and come into contact in the lower areas of their mutually facing side surfaces 26. Such contact of the piece goods 24 is generally not useful in the interest of precise handling of the piece goods 24 and should therefore be avoided.

The horizontal extension of the support bar 16, which cannot be illustrated here due to the graphic representation as a front view, is sensibly based on the corresponding piece goods length, so that the length of the support bar 16 in the horizontal direction (in the direction out of the drawing plane or into it) can possibly be somewhat less than the corresponding piece goods length that is to be supported with the support bar 16.

In two-lane operation (Fig. 5A) with parallel piece goods feed or with two-row piece goods positioning at the supply location 30 or takeover location, the two movable gripper bars 12 and 40 are each moved from both sides against the support bar 16 or the separating plate 18, so that two piece goods 24 or two piece goods groups are fixed and separated from each other when the movable gripper bars 12 and 40 are moved from the outside against the piece goods 24 or piece goods groups. The clamping or holding forces 34 acting on the side surfaces 26 of the two piece goods 24 gripped in this way are again indicated by the horizontal arrows.

Fig. 5A clearly shows that the fixed second gripper bar 14 (see also Fig. 4) remains inoperative in two-lane operation when picking up two adjacent piece goods 24 or groups of piece goods and is arranged without contact with one of the piece goods 24 at a short distance from the first gripper bar 12 delivered to the outer side surface 26 of the right piece goods 24.

However, this changes in single-lane operation, which is illustrated in a schematic front view in Fig. 5B. In this case, the gripper head 10 only grasps a single piece of goods 24 or an aligned row of two or more pieces of goods, of which only one piece of goods 24 can be shown due to the graphic view in Fig. 5B. The support strip 16 located to the left of the support strip 16, which is designed as a separating plate 18, for example, The third gripper bar 40 has no function here and can, for example, be located close to the support bar 16 in the rest position shown, since there is no item 24 to be gripped there.

The only piece of goods 24 to be picked up (or the only pair of pieces of goods to be picked up or the only group of pieces of goods to be picked up) is located on the right at the staging area 30 and is clamped using the fixed second gripper bar 14 and the first gripper bar 12 moved in the direction of the separating plate 18. This changes the direction of action of the first gripper bar 12; it does not pick up the piece of goods 24 with its front active surface, which faces the separating plate 18, but with its rear active surface, which in this case faces the fixed second gripper bar 14.

The fixed second gripper bar 14, on the other hand, has only one active surface, which always faces the first gripper bar 12, but which remains inoperative in two-lane operation (see Fig. 5A). Likewise, the third gripper bar 40 also has only one active surface, which faces the separating plate 18 or the support bar 16, but which also remains inoperative in one-lane operation (see Fig. 5B), so that the third gripper bar 40 can be sensibly moved into the rest position in the direction of the support bar 16.

In the variants of the gripper head 10 according to the invention shown in Figures 4, 5A and 5B, the gripper bars 12, 14 and 40 can in particular each be formed by gripper jaws or equipped with gripper jaws that can be positioned against the piece goods 24 to be gripped. Optionally, the gripper bars 12, 14 and 40 can be equipped with profiles, non-slip coatings or the like on their contact surfaces that can be positioned against the side surfaces 26 of the piece goods 24 to be gripped, optionally also with attachments made of elastic material that improves adhesion to the contacted piece goods side walls, formed for example by elastically flexible plastic or rubber elements.

Such profiles are illustrated, for example, in the schematic perspective views of Figures 1A and 1B, formed, for example, by horizontal elastic attachments (Fig. 1A) or by numerous elastic attachments arranged next to one another (Fig. 1B), so that a non-slip and elastically flexible profile of the gripper bars can be provided. Such elastic attachments, as shown in Figures 1A and 1B, can optionally also be provided on the gripper bars 12, 14 and 40 of the variants of the gripper head 10 according to the invention shown in Figures 4, 5A and 5B.

The fifth and sixth embodiments of the gripper head 10 according to the invention shown in Figures 4, 5A and 5B can be in particular movable components that manipulate the piece goods 24 of a rotation and distribution system (not shown in detail here) for piece goods 24 that are moved along a transport route or for piece goods 24 that are located on the support plane 32 of the provisioning area 30. The gripper head 10 is arranged together with the gripper base 20, which is held in particular adjustable or rotatable on the gripper head 10, and the two or three gripper strips 12, 14 and 40 arranged there, above the transport route or above the provisioning area 30. The gripper base 20 or the carrier element for the gripper strips 12, 14 and 40 is or are preferably mounted rotatably or otherwise movably on a holder or tool head, which is often also referred to as TCP (Tool Center Point). This rotating suspension can also be seen in the illustrations in Figures 1A and 1B.

In this way, piece goods 24 can be grasped in different orientations or rotational positions and grasped piece goods 24 can be rotated and brought into a desired target orientation for depositing in the desired target position, which can be done by rotating the gripper base 20 together with the gripper bars 12, 14 and 40 arranged thereon and the piece goods 24 clamped therewith. Since in the rotation and distribution system according to the invention the gripper head 10 is preferably suspended in a movable manner above the transport route or the provision area 30 for the piece goods 24 and can be positioned within a defined movement space, this arrangement can result in a grouping station for piece goods 24.

Figures 6A and 6B each show schematic front views of a seventh embodiment of the gripper head 10 according to the invention and also illustrate a first embodiment of a rotation and distribution system 42 according to the invention.

The turning and distribution system 42 comprises in the embodiment shown in Figures 6A and 6B a seventh embodiment variant of a gripper head 10 and a supply station 30 or a horizontal conveyor device 44. By means of the supply station 30, the shown piece goods 24, which can be formed, for example, as beverage containers 25, can be delivered to a working area of the Gripper head 10 can be provided. The piece goods 24 or the beverage container packs 25 can optionally be moved into the working area of the gripper head 10 via the horizontal conveyor device 44. Such beverage container packs 25 can comprise several beverage bottles or several beverage cans that are held together by a packaging material. The packaging material can be, for example, a strapping.

The packaging means can also be a flat packaging blank made of cellulose-containing material into which the beverage containers or the beverage bottles or beverage cans are inserted. In addition, the beverage container packages 25 can comprise several beverage containers that are connected to one another via adhesive connections. Other packaging means and/or connections are also conceivable in order to combine beverage containers in this way to form a beverage container package 25.

In Figures 6A and 6B, the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor 44 is oriented in the direction of the image plane. If, however, the piece goods 24 are located on the staging area 30, then normally no transport direction is provided or defined. Typically, further piece goods 24 can be transported in the direction of the image plane, which are aligned with the two piece goods 24 that can be seen in Fig. 6A. Since these further piece goods 24 are hidden by the two piece goods 24 shown, they cannot be seen in Fig. 6A. The two piece goods 24 shown in Fig. 6A are arranged next to one another perpendicular to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor 44.

The gripper head 10 comprises a first gripper bar 12 and a second gripper bar 14, which are only shown schematically in Fig. 6A. In practice, the gripper bars 12 and 14 can be formed, for example, by gripper jaws (cf. Figures 1A and 1B), by tong-shaped arms or by metal sheets. On a respective broad side surface, which faces the piece goods 24 to be received, the gripper bars 12 and 14 can each have a profile and/or a defined shape that corresponds to the respective piece goods 24 to be received, so that the piece goods 24 to be received plunge into the gripper bars 12 and 14 in a form-fitting manner and/or so that a static friction between the gripper bars 12 and 14 and the piece goods 24 is increased due to the profile. This can reduce the risk of a jammed item being caught by the Items 24 received by the gripper head 10 are unintentionally released from the gripper head 10 when manipulated.

In order to clamp the piece goods 24 or the beverage containers 25 via the gripper bars 12 and 14, the gripper bars 12 and 14 carry out a feed movement in which the gripper bars 12 and 14 reduce their relative distance from one another and in doing so move along the gripper base 20, to which the gripper bars 12 and 14 are each attached, in a linear direction and perpendicular to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor device 44 or parallel to the support plane 32 of the provisioning area 30.

When the gripper bars 12 and 14 move in opposite directions, the piece goods 24 or the beverage container packs 25 are pushed together via the gripper bars 12 and 14 until the piece goods 24 or the beverage container packs 25 hit the support bar 16 of the gripper head 10 located centrally between the gripper bars 12 and 14. The support bar 16 is a separating plate 18 which lies flat against the piece goods 24 or the beverage container packs 25 when the respective piece goods 24 or the respective beverage container packs 25 are held clamped between the gripper bars 12 and 14.

Such a support bar 16 is necessary or useful in practice in order to avoid an unintentional release of the piece goods 24 from the gripper head 10 when the piece goods 24 held clamped by the gripper head 10 are manipulated via the gripper head 10. The separating plate 18 or the support bar 16 therefore ensures that the piece goods 24 are sufficiently fixed to the gripper head 10 and also prevents the piece goods 24 from shifting against one another when the piece goods 24 are manipulated via the gripper head 10.

If the piece goods 24 are designed as beverage container packages 25, practice has shown that beverage containers of a first beverage container package 25 can at least partially dip between several beverage containers of an adjacent beverage container package 25 if adjacent piece goods 24 are held in a clamped manner via gripper bars 12 and 14 and if a support bar 16 separating the piece goods 24 is missing.

Such a nested arrangement of beverage container packs 25 is undesirable and regularly impairs further processing of the beverage container packs 25 already manipulated via the gripper head 10. In addition, In such cases, beverage containers 25 are often gripped by the gripper head 10 if they have been gripped by the gripper head 10 and are in a nested arrangement. A support bar 16 is therefore always required for the clamped acceptance of piece goods 24 if several piece goods 24 adjacent perpendicular to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor device 44 are to be gripped together by the gripper head 10.

The gripper head 10 is connected to a control device S. After the gripper head 10 has clamped and received piece goods 24, the piece goods 24 are manipulated via the gripper head 10 and are thereby offset at an angle to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor device 44 and/or rotated about a vertical axis. The movements of the gripper head 10 at the instigation of the control device S are carried out in particular in such a way that several piece goods 24 are in an arrangement after manipulation via the gripper head 10 that is coordinated with a palletizable position to be formed from the respective several piece goods 24.

For this purpose, it may be necessary for piece goods 24 to be rotated via the gripper head 10 without these piece goods 24 being displaced obliquely to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor device 44 during the manipulation. It may also be necessary to form such an arrangement for piece goods 24 to be displaced obliquely to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor device 44 via the gripper head 10 without these piece goods 24 being rotated about a vertical axis.

For some piece goods 24, it may also be necessary to form such an arrangement that they are both displaced at an angle to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor 44 and also rotated about a vertical axis during manipulation. If individual piece goods 24 intended for the respective arrangement are already in a position and orientation that is suitable for the respective arrangement, they can also be moved through the working area of the gripper head 10 without the gripper head 10 grasping and manipulating these individual piece goods 24.

As can be seen from the illustration in Fig. 6A, the clamping force required to hold the piece goods 24 on the gripper head 10 is applied via the gripper bars 12 and 14. The force connection is thus achieved by the gripper bars 12 and 14 jointly applying the clamping force required to hold the piece goods 24 and the Clamping force is introduced from one of the two piece goods 24 via the support bar 16 to the respective other piece goods 3. In Fig. 6A, the clamping force is indicated by means of the arrows and the reference number 34.

In practice, the support bar 16 must be designed with a low thickness so that a single piece of goods 24 to be received via the gripper head 10 cannot be gripped by one of the two gripper bars 12 or 14 and a support bar 16 without this leading to damage or an unwanted deformation of the support bar 16. The clamping forces of a gripper bar are too great in gripper heads known from the prior art, so that their support bar cannot withstand such clamping forces. In practice, therefore, several gripper heads are used when both several piece goods 24 adjacent perpendicular to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor 44 and only individual piece goods 24 or only several piece goods 24 arranged one behind the other in the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor 44 must be manipulated in order to produce a corresponding arrangement from a large number of piece goods 24 that is coordinated with a palletizable position.

The gripper head 10 according to the seventh embodiment variant according to Figures 6A and 6B can, however, carry out a large number of different manipulation tasks and can both accept several adjacent piece goods 25 perpendicular to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor 44 and, if required, grasp individual piece goods 24. For this reason, the turning and distribution system 42 can have a very compact structure, since no further gripper head 10 is required for the described manipulation tasks. In addition, the turning and distribution system 42 can work with a high throughput.

As can also be seen from Fig. 6A, the gripper bars 12 and 14 have a first range R1 starting from the gripper base 20. The support bar 16 has a second range R2 starting from the gripper base 20, which is significantly reduced compared to the first range R1 of the first gripper bar 12 and the first range R1 of the second gripper bar 14. Such a reduced range R2 of the support bar 16 makes it possible to arrange the support bar 16 above a piece of goods 24 that is received in a clamped manner if only a single piece of goods 24 or several piece of goods 24 arranged in alignment with one another in the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor device 44 are to be received in a clamped manner via the gripper head 10. As can be seen from a comparison of Fig. 6A with Fig. 6B, the gripper head 10 is brought to a second height level H2 in order to receive just one piece of goods 24 or just several piece of goods 24 arranged in alignment in the transport direction, in which the gripper head 10 has a greater distance from the horizontal conveyor device 44 than a first height level H1 according to Fig. 6A. Such an adjustment of the height levels H1 or H2 for the gripper head 10 preferably takes place automatically at the instigation of the control device S within the scope of the intended use of the rotation and distribution system 42.

The range R1 of the gripper bars 12 and 14 (cf. Fig. 6A) extending from the gripper base 20 is also still sufficient at the height level H2 (cf. Fig. 6B) to come into surface contact with the respective at least one piece of goods 24 to be received and to be able to clamp the respective at least one piece of goods 24 to be received via the gripper bars 12 and 14.

In contrast, the range R2 of the support bar 16 is reduced in such a way that the support bar 16 does not reach the respective at least one piece of goods 24 to be clamped and does not come into contact with the respective at least one piece of goods 24 to be clamped. Rather, the support bar 16 is located above the respective at least one piece of goods 24 that was clamped by the gripper bars 12 and 14. This situation is illustrated in Fig. 6B in a schematic front view.

Depending on the respective arrangement to be produced from several piece goods 24, which is coordinated with a palletizable layer to be formed, the gripper head 10 is expediently moved and controlled at the instigation of the control device S in such a way that it changes back and forth between the different height levels H1 and H2 when the respective arrangement is formed. When piece goods 24 are clamped and manipulated via the gripper head 10, the piece goods 24 normally remain in surface contact with the horizontal conveyor device 44 throughout and are therefore not lifted or are only lifted minimally by the horizontal conveyor device 44.

The support strip 16, which is a separating plate 18, is fixed to the gripper base 20 in the embodiment according to Figures 6A and 6B and thus cannot be moved along the gripper base 20. The rotation and distribution system 42 also preferably includes an industrial robot, which can be used as a Portal system or can be designed as a delta kinematic robot and which industrial robot moves the gripper head 10 at the instigation of the control device S along the horizontal conveyor 44 (or along the staging area 30) in order to receive and manipulate piece goods 24 in a clamping manner.

Figures 7A and 7B show schematic front views of an eighth embodiment of the gripper head 10 according to the invention and a second embodiment of a rotation and distribution system 42 according to the invention. The embodiment of the gripper head 10 according to Figures 7A and 7B differs from the embodiment of the gripper head 10 according to Figures 6A and 6B in that in the embodiment according to Figures 7A and 7B, instead of exactly one support strip 16, two such support strips 16 are arranged between the gripper strips 12 and 14. By means of such an embodiment, according to Fig. 7A, three piece goods 24 can be received which are arranged or provided adjacent to one another perpendicular to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor device 44. For this purpose, the gripper head 10 is located at the first height level H1, at which the support strips 16 dip between adjacent piece goods 24.

In order to clamp the receipt of a total of three items of goods 24 that are adjacent perpendicular to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor 44, the gripper bars 12 and 14 carry out a feed movement in which the three items of goods 24 are pushed together via the gripper bars 12 and 14 and in doing so come into surface contact with the support bars 16. The item of goods 24 shown in the middle in Fig. 7A then lies flat against the two support bars 16 when the items of goods 24 are clamped via the gripper head 10. The two outer items of goods 24 each lie flat against a support bar 16 and against a gripper bar 12 or 14 when the items of goods 24 are held clamped via the gripper head 10.

In the embodiment according to Figures 7A and 7B, the support strips 16 are fixed to the gripper base 20 so that they can be adjusted in a linear direction or moved in a linear direction, as indicated by arrows in Figure 7A. The support strips 16 are thus pushed together with the piece goods 24 when the gripper strips 12 and 14 carry out a feed movement. It is conceivable that the support strips 16 interact with a respective spring, which pushes the respective support strip 16 back into an initial position when the piece goods 24 have been released by the gripper head 10. In Fig. 7B, the gripper head 10 is located at a height level H2, at which the gripper head 10 has a greater distance from the horizontal conveyor device 44 than the height level H1 (cf. Fig. 7A). The gripper head 10 assumes the height level H2 when only a single piece of goods 24 or only several piece of goods 24 arranged in alignment in the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor device 44 are received via the gripper head 10.

The support strips 16 are in a waiting position without surface contact with the at least one piece of goods 24 received in a clamped manner when the respective at least one piece of goods 24 has been grasped by the gripper strips 12 and 14 of the gripper head 10. Since the support strips 16 are arranged on the gripper base 20 so as to be adjustable in a linear direction or movable in a linear direction, the support strips 16 can be moved along with the gripper strips 12 and 14 when the gripper strips 12 and 14 carry out their feed movement.

If three piece goods 24 are subsequently to be grasped by means of the gripper head 10, which are adjacent perpendicular to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor 44, the gripper head 10 is lowered from the height level H2 to the height level H1 according to Fig. 7A, whereby the support strips 16 again provide contact surfaces with which the piece goods 24 come into surface contact when the support strips 12 and 14 carry out a feed movement.

Fig. 8 shows a ninth embodiment of a gripper head 10 according to the invention, as it can be provided as a component in various embodiments of a rotation and distribution system 42 according to the invention (see Figs. 6A to 7B). In particular, in the schematic perspective view of Fig. 8, further details of a gripper head 10 can be seen, as they can also be provided in the previously described embodiments according to Figs. 6A and 7B or according to Figs. 7A and 7B.

Fig. 8 shows that the gripper bars 12 and 14 each have a plurality of flexible contact elements 46 and 48, which come into contact with piece goods 24 when they are clamped and are each reversibly elastically deformable. Such flexible contact elements 46 and 48 can be made of rubber or plastic, for example, and in this case have a cylindrical shape. Practice has shown that with flexible contact elements 46 and 48 according to Fig.

8 the piece goods 24 or beverage container packages 25 to be detected can be held securely and that the risk of damage to piece goods 24 or beverage container packages 25 can be kept very low if the piece goods 24 or beverage container packages 25 are held clamped while resting on such flexible contact elements 46 and 48.

In addition, Fig. 8 shows that the support strips 16, which can each be sheet metal structures or separating sheets 18, continue to have a smaller vertical reach starting from the gripper base 20 than the gripper strips 12 and 14. By changing the height level H1 or H2, which the gripper head 10 assumes relative to a horizontal conveyor 44, as required (cf. Figures 6A and 6B or 7A and 7B), the gripper head 10 can optionally receive individual piece goods 24 or several piece goods 24 that are aligned in the transport direction of a horizontal conveyor 44 or several piece goods 24 that are adjacent perpendicular to the transport direction of a horizontal conveyor 44.

The piece goods 3 are also shown only schematically in Fig. 8, whereby the piece goods 24 can be beverage containers 25. The gripper head 10 is rotatably attached to an industrial robot (not shown) via the flange 50, which is located on the gripper base 20.

Fig. 9 shows a flow chart of steps that can be performed individually or according to the sequence shown in Fig.

9 can be provided in various embodiments of the method 100 according to the invention.

In the first step 110, a control device S (see Figures 6A to 8) is provided with information about an arrangement that is to be formed from several piece goods 24 via a turning and distribution system 42. The arrangement corresponds to a pre-grouping consisting of several piece goods 24, which is transferred into a position suitable for palletizing by pushing the individual piece goods 24 together in a work station downstream of the turning and distribution system 42. The turning and distribution system 42 comprises a gripper head 10 with a first gripper bar 12 and a second gripper bar 14, which can carry out a feed movement for clamping receipt of at least one piece of goods 24. In the method 100 shown, the gripper head 10 also includes a support bar 16 for piece goods 24, which is located between the first gripper bar 12 and the second gripper bar 14. The support bar 16, the first gripper bar 12 and the second gripper bar 14 are arranged on a gripper base 20. The support bar 16 has a reduced reach R2 from the gripper base 20 compared to the first gripper bar 12 and compared to the second gripper bar 14. For example, a gripper head 10, as used for the embodiment of the method 100 according to Fig. 9, can be designed according to the embodiment according to Figures 6A and 6B or according to the embodiment according to Figures 7A and 7B.

In the following step 120, a plurality of piece goods 24 are guided via a horizontal conveyor device 44 designed as a component of the turning and distribution system 42 into a working area of the gripper head 10, which is arranged on an industrial robot.

Depending on the respective manipulation task that the gripper head 10 must perform to form the arrangement specified in step 110 as part of the information, the control device S decides whether a support bar 16 is required to receive piece goods 24 or whether at least one piece of goods 24 to be received should be grasped exclusively via gripper bars 12 and 14. Then, in step 130, the height level H1 or H2 of the gripper head 10 is adjusted as required at the instigation of the control device S, so that the support bar 16 is either in surface contact with the respective at least one piece of goods 24 when the respective at least one piece of goods 24 is held clamped via the gripper bars 12 and 14, or alternatively the support bar 16 is in a position in which the support bar 16 does not reach the respective at least one piece of goods 24 when the respective at least one piece of goods 24 is held clamped via the gripper bars 12 and 14.

In step 140, the gripper bars 12 and 14 carry out a feed movement, whereby the respective at least one piece of goods 24 is clamped. The gripper head 10 is located at the respective height level H1 or H2, which was adjusted as required in step 130. The then clamped at least one piece of goods 24 is also manipulated via the gripper head 10 and is thereby displaced obliquely to the transport direction of the horizontal conveyor device 44 and/or rotated about a vertical axis in order to move a large number of piece of goods 24 into the corresponding - M -

Arrangement which was specified to the control device S in step 110 with the information. During manipulation, the gripper head 10 maintains the respective height level H1 or H2 which the gripper head 10 had already assumed when clamping the respective at least one piece of goods 24.

According to the embodiments shown in Figures 6A to 8 and explained above, the gripper head 10 is to be connected to a control device, which is identified there by a reference symbol S. The movements of the gripper head 10 generally take place at the instigation of the control device S and in particular in such a way that several piece goods 24 are in a desired or respectively aimed-for arrangement after manipulation via the gripper head 10, which can be coordinated, for example, with a palletizable position to be formed from the respective several piece goods 24.

Even if this control device S is not specifically identified in Figures 1A to 5B and its mode of operation is not explained in more detail in the associated description passages, this does not mean that no such control device S is present or necessary for the embodiment variants of the gripper head 10 shown in Figures 1A to 5B. On the contrary, the respective control of the gripper head 10 (according to Figures 1A to 5B) takes place in a corresponding manner, typically by means of such a control device S as is shown in Figures 6A to 8 and the mode of operation of which is also explained in the associated description passages.

The following is provided as a supplementary note to the above statements. Although in connection with the embodiments shown in the figures and their above descriptions, "schematic" representations and views are often or generally mentioned, this does not mean that the figure representations and their descriptions are of secondary importance with regard to the disclosure of the invention. The person skilled in the art is certainly able to extract enough information from the schematic and abstractly drawn representations to facilitate his understanding of the invention, without his understanding being impaired in any way by the drawn and possibly not exactly scaled proportions of parts of the devices, their details or other drawn elements. The figures enable the person skilled in the art as a reader Rather, based on the more specifically explained implementations of the method 100 according to the invention and the more specifically explained structure of the gripper head 10 according to the invention, a better understanding of the inventive concept formulated in a general and/or abstract manner in the claims and in the general part of the description is to be derived at least with regard to some aspects.

The invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment. However, it will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that modifications or variations of the invention can be made without departing from the scope of the following claims.

List of reference symbols

10 Gripper head

12 gripper bar, first gripper bar, movable gripper bar, adjustable gripper bar, adjustable first gripper bar

14 gripper bar, second gripper bar, movable gripper bar, adjustable gripper bar, adjustable second gripper bar

16 Support bar

18 Divider plate, separating blade

20 Gripper base

22 electric drive elements

24 General cargo, general cargo

25 containers, beverage containers

26 Side surface (of the piece goods)

28 Centre of gravity (of the cargo)

30 Provisioning space

32 support level

34 Clamping force, holding force

36 Rotatable suspension (gripper head)

38 tines (gripper bar)

40 gripper bar, third gripper bar, movable third gripper bar

42 Turning and distribution system

44 Horizontal conveyor

46 flexible contact element

48 flexible contact element

50 flange

100 procedures

110 Process step, first process step, first step

120 Process step, second process step, second step

130 Process step, third process step, third step

140 Procedural step, fourth procedural step, fourth step

H1 altitude level, first altitude level

H2 altitude level, second altitude level

R1 range, first range (gripper bar) R2 range, second range (support bar)

S Control device

Claims

Expectations

1 . Gripper head (10) for gripping piece goods (24), which comprises at least:

- two gripper bars (12, 14, 40) which cooperate for the temporary clamping acceptance of at least one piece of goods (24) and which are arranged on a gripper base (20) of the gripper head (10),

- at least one support bar (16) suspended from the gripper base (20) and arranged between the at least two gripper bars (12, 14, 40),

- wherein a first of the gripper bars (12) is fixedly fixed to the gripper base (20) or is movably suspended therefrom,

- wherein at least one further gripper bar (14, 40) is movably suspended from the gripper base (20),

- wherein the at least one further gripper bar (14, 40) can be positioned against the respective opposite fixable gripper bar (12) for clamping receipt of at least one piece of goods (24), or wherein the at least two movable gripper bars (14, 40) can be positioned against each other for clamping receipt of at least one piece of goods (24),

- and wherein the at least one support bar (16) can be fixed to the gripper base (20) or its position between the gripper bars (12, 14, 40) can be changed.

2. Gripper head (10) according to claim 1, wherein the at least two gripper bars (12, 14, 40) are movably arranged on the gripper base (20).

3. Gripper head (10) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the further gripper bar (14, 40) movably suspended on the gripper base (20) is a first gripper bar (12) which can be advanced against the second gripper bar (14) fixed in place on the gripper base (20) for clamping receipt of at least one piece of goods (24).

4. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 3, in which, in addition to the second gripper bar (14) fixed in place on the gripper base (20), two further gripper bars (12, 40) are movably suspended on the gripper base (20), formed by the first gripper bar (12) and a third gripper bar (40).

5. Gripper head (10) according to claim 4, wherein the first movable gripper bar (12) and the third movable gripper bar (40) are adjustable relative to each other in order to to detect and accept at least two separate piece goods (24) or two separate groups of piece goods.

6. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 5, in which the support bar (16) suspended on the gripper base (20) and located between the at least two movable gripper bars (12, 14, 40) separates at least two piece goods (24) from one another and supports them against one another, which are clamped by the gripper bars (12, 14, 40) positioned against one another.

7. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 6, which is equipped with exactly one support bar (16) which is fixed non-adjustably at a predetermined position on the gripper base (20).

8. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the at least one support bar (16) has a reduced reach (R2) starting from the gripper base (20) compared to the first gripper bar (12) and the second gripper bar (14).

9. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 8, in which the at least one support bar (16) is movably suspended on the gripper base (20) and its position adapts to the at least one piece of goods (24) gripped by the gripper bars (12, 14, 40) or to the positions of several piece of goods (24) and/or its position evades the at least one piece of goods (24) gripped by the gripper bars (12, 14, 40).

10. Gripper head (10) according to claim 9, wherein the at least one support bar (16) movably suspended on the gripper base (20) rests or can be placed against one of the two movable gripper bars (12, 14, 40) when gripping a single piece of goods (24) or several piece of goods (24) in contact with one another.

11. Gripper head (10) according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the at least one support bar (16) is slidably suspended on the gripper base (20).

12. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 9 to 11, in which aligned and/or counter-parallel directions of movement of the two gripper bars (12, 14, 40) that can be fed against each other and of the at least one support bar (16) are provided.

13. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 9 to 12, wherein the at least one support strip (16) movably suspended on the gripper base (20) is variably assigned to one of the Gripper strips (12, 14, 40) can be assigned, wherein the support strip (16) can be coupled in its adjustment movements in particular to the gripper strip (12, 14, 40) to which it can be placed or against which it rests. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 9 to 13, in which the at least one support strip (16) can be returned to a central position on the gripper base (20) or on the gripper head (10) in an unloaded state with the aid of a spring and/or is held in the central position with the aid of a spring. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 9 to 14, in which the adjusting movements of the at least one support strip (16) can be coupled to an opening or resetting movement of one of the gripper strips (12, 14, 40) and can thus be reset to its middle position on the gripper base (20) or on the gripper head (10). Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 15, which comprises at least two support strips (16) which are located between the first gripper strip (12) and the second gripper strip (14) and which each have a reduced range (R2) starting from the gripper base (20) compared to the first gripper strip (12) and the second gripper strip (14), wherein the at least two support strips (16) are each adjustable in a linear direction along the gripper base (20). Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 16, in which the at least one support strip (16) has a profiled active surface which corresponds to a surface profile of one of the gripper strips (12, 14, 40), wherein the profiled active surface of the support strip (16) can be at least partially immersed in the active surface of the gripper strip (12, 14, 40) as soon as it is placed there. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 17, in which the gripper strips (12, 14, 40) are each formed by gripper jaws or are equipped with gripper jaws which can be advanced against the piece goods (24) to be gripped. Gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 18, which serves to grip piece goods (24), which are each beverage container packs (25). Turning and distribution system (42) for piece goods (24) moved along a transport route or located on a supply site (30), with at least one gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 19, which together with the gripper base (20) held adjustably or rotatably on the gripper head (10) and the at least two gripper bars (12, 14, 40) arranged there are arranged above the transport path or above the provisioning area (30).

21. Turning and distribution system (42) according to claim 20, wherein the gripper head (10) is suspended movably above the transport path or the provisioning area (30) for the piece goods (24) and can be positioned within a defined movement space.

22. Turning and distribution system (42) according to claim 20 or 21, with at least one industrial robot on which the at least one gripper head (10) is arranged, wherein the at least one industrial robot is in particular a gantry robot, a delta kinematic robot, an articulated arm robot or the like.

23. Turning and distribution system (42) according to one of claims 20 to 22 with a control device (S) and at least one horizontal conveyor device (44), via which at least one horizontal conveyor device (44) piece goods (24) can be moved into a working area of the at least one gripper head (10), wherein the at least one gripper head (10) can be controlled via the control device (S) in such a way that

- the at least one gripper head (10) can form an arrangement from a large number of piece goods (24), which arrangement is adapted to a palletizable layer to be formed from the large number of piece goods (24), in that the at least one gripper head (10) repeatedly receives and manipulates at least one piece of goods (24) moved into its working area to form a respective arrangement, and wherein the control device (S) is designed such that

- the control device (S) selects a specific height level (H1, H2) from several different height levels (H1, H2) for a respective clamped receipt of the respective at least one piece of goods (24) and controls the gripper head (10) for receipt of the respective at least one piece of goods (24) at the specific and selected height level (H1, H2).

24. Method (100) for grasping and manipulating piece goods (24) by means of a gripper head (10), in particular by means of a gripper head (10) according to one of claims 1 to 19, wherein a piece goods (24) or several grouped piece goods (24) are grasped by means of at least two interacting gripper bars (12, 14, 40) of the gripper head (10) are at least temporarily detected,

- wherein a first of the gripper bars (12) is movably suspended from the gripper base (20),

- wherein a second of the gripper bars (14) is fixedly fixed to the gripper base (20) or is movably suspended therefrom,

- wherein the first gripper bar (12) can be positioned against the respective opposite fixable gripper bar (14) for clamping receipt of at least one piece of goods (24), or wherein the at least two movable gripper bars (12, 14, 40) can be positioned against each other for clamping receipt of at least one piece of goods (24),

- and wherein at least one support bar (16) located between the at least two movable gripper bars (12, 14, 40) can be fixed to the gripper base (20) or can be changed in its position between the gripper bars (12, 14, 40), wherein the at least one support bar (16) separates at least two piece goods (24) from one another and supports them against one another, which are clamped by the gripper bars (12, 14, 40) positioned against one another. Method (100) for grasping and manipulating piece goods (24) according to claim 24 using at least one gripper head (10), which is designed and equipped in particular according to one of claims 1 to 19, in which method (100) piece goods (24) are moved via at least one horizontal conveyor device (44) into a working area of the at least one gripper head (10) and the at least one gripper head (10) then receives at least one piece goods (24) by clamping by an infeed movement of its first gripper bar (12) and its second gripper bar (14) and/or a third gripper bar (40) and manipulates the at least one piece goods (24) received by clamping, and in which method (100) it is provided that the at least one gripper head (10) adjusts its height level (H1, H2) as required for the clamping reception of the at least one piece goods (24), so that the at least one support bar (16) of the gripper head (10) after a clamped acceptance of the at least one piece of goods (24) is optionally in surface contact with the piece of goods (24) accepted in a clamped manner or does not reach the at least one piece of goods (24) accepted in a clamped manner. Method (100) according to claim 24 or 25, in which at least one further gripper bar (12, 40) is movably suspended on the gripper base (20) and for for the clamping receipt of at least one piece of goods (24) against the respectively opposite gripper bar (14). Method (100) according to claim 26, in which the gripper bar (12) movably suspended on the gripper base (20) is the first gripper bar (12) which is advanced against the second gripper bar (14) fixed in place on the gripper base (20) for the clamping receipt of at least one piece of goods (24). Method (100) according to claim 26 or 27, in which in addition to the second gripper bar (14) fixed in place on the gripper base (20), two further gripper bars (12, 40) are movably suspended on the gripper base (20), formed by the first gripper bar (12) and a third gripper bar (40). Method (100) according to one of claims 26 to 28, in which the first movable gripper bar (12) and the third movable gripper bar (40) are advanced towards one another, with at least two separate piece goods (24) or two separate groups of piece goods being grasped and received in a clamped manner between the first and third gripper bars (12, 40). Method (100) according to one of claims 25 to 29, in which the support bar (16) is movably suspended from the gripper base (20) and its position adapts to the at least one piece of goods (24) grasped by the gripper bars (12, 14, 40) or to the positions of several piece of goods (24) and/or its position evades the at least one piece of goods (24) grasped by the gripper bars (12, 14, 40). Method (100) according to claim 30, in which the support bar (16) movably suspended on the gripper base (20) rests against one of the two movable gripper bars (12, 40) when a single piece of goods (24) or several piece of goods (24) in contact with one another is grasped. Method (100) according to claim 30 or 31, in which the support bar (16) movably suspended on the gripper base (20) is spatially variably assigned to one of the gripper bars (12, 14, 40) during feed movements of the gripper bars (12, 14, 40). Method (100) according to one of claims 24 to 32, in which the at least one piece of goods (24) received in a clamped manner is rotated and/or displaced obliquely to the transport direction of the at least one horizontal conveyor device (44) during the manipulation and wherein a surface contact between the respective at least one piece of goods (24) received in a clamped manner and the at least one horizontal conveyor device (44) is continuously maintained during manipulation.

34. Method (100) according to one of claims 24 to 33, in which the at least one gripper head (10) forms an arrangement from a large number of piece goods (24), which arrangement is matched to a palletizable layer to be formed from the large number of piece goods (24), wherein the gripper head (10) repeatedly receives and manipulates at least one piece of goods (24) moved into its working area to form the respective arrangement, and in which method a control device (S) selects a specific height level (H1, H2) from several different height levels for a respective clamping reception of the respective at least one piece of goods (24) and controls the gripper head (10), which clamps the respective at least one piece of goods (24) with the specific selected height level (H1, H2). 35. Method (100) according to one of claims 24 to 34, wherein the

The piece goods (24) are beverage containers (25).