Robotic End-of-Arm Tooling Trends in key markets

Robotic sales have increased over recent years in the non-automotive markets as the cost of robots goes down and familiarity of robotic cells increases. North American companies can readily justify ROI when they look at competition, quality, productivity, and flexibility issues. Packaging, palletizing, and other material handling applications are key areas where robotic cells have assisted the non-automotive markets.

As the growth of robotic sales has increased in the non-automotive markets so has the need for End-of-Arm Tooling (EOAT) or end effector to handle a wide variety of product and work pieces. Since a robot is only as good as it’s EOAT in any market or application, the requirements that the eoat secure and manipulate the product without damaging it is critical to the success of the cell.

Injection Molding
EOAT for the plastic injection molding industry need to be flexible. Several factors of the molding process and part affect the type of eoat needed:

• Parts that stick or need to be manipulated to get them off of the mold
• Avoiding damage to Class A surfaces
• Difficult applications including insert molding and over-molding
• Multiple cavities
• Additional operations including degating, assembly, or packing

All of these factors can dictate whether you use standard eoat with off-the-shelf components such as vacuum cups and sprue pliers or a custom eoat with grippers and actuators to remove the parts form the mold. Innovations in EOAT have also included programmable EOAT that can be used with several molded parts. As the part features change from mold to mold the programmable actuators on the EOAT can be manipulated by the robot controller to adjust part gripping mechanisms to the desired position.

Other difficult applications in the plastic injection molding industry that require unique eoat to support feasibility of using a robot are insert molding applications. These applications may require several inserts to be placed into the mold so that plastic can be molded around them to form a part. A typical application of this is inserting metallic threaded studs or bushings to facilitate the assembly of the plastic part. The EOAT would have to secure the inserts as well as remove the molded parts from the mold. The EOAT may need to locate onto the mold for accuracy and have alignment compensators to overcome insert tolerance issues.

Part, actuator position, and eoat sensing are critical in difficult injection molding applications. There can be several eoat for various molds that are run in any given injection molding machine. This creates a need for the robot to identify which EOAT it has. This can be accommodated through creative wiring or RFID. Part and actuator position sensing is also critical especially when the parts are die-locked to some degree. The EOAT may need to go through a progression of part manipulating motions to get the part off of the mold made possible by several actuators working in succession. Any deviation from this progression could lead to crashes or damaged parts. Part and actuator sensing make it possible for the robot to know which part of the progression it is at any time. Multi-cavitation adds to the complexity and increases the need for sensing.

Packaging & Palletizing
Palletizing applications have brought robots to various markets. Palletizing heavy cases or high speed palletizing may require robots. Case palletizing can require different types of EOAT depending on the quality of the corrugated material, the number of cases to manipulate to keep up with throughput, and the product in the cases. EOAT with grippers to secure the outside of the case can be used when the product inside the case can maintain the cases shape when it is gripped. This type of EOAT works well with heavy, sturdy cases. Individual grippers also allow the possibility of placing cases independently for various configurations.

Large bag palletizing can be accommodated with EOAT with forks to grip the bag underneath through a roller conveyor. Tines on the EOAT reach in between the rollers to firmly grasp the bag irrespective of content. This enables the robot to firmly manipulate the bag and palletize it at high speeds.

Large vacuum plates can also be used for securing various sized and contoured product. It consists of a foam rubber pad with an array of holes for vacuum valves. The vacuum is drawn through the valves to secure the product. The valves that do not make contact with the product automatically close so you do not lose vacuum. Vacuum plates can be used to palletize entire layers of product or individual units. They can also be zoned to palletize units individually. The type of products the vacuum plates are good for include: cases, bags, cans, and various other products.

Robots are a good fit where ever consistency, reliability, productivity, flexibility, and cost issues are present. Many North American companies in various markets utilize robots and their EOAT to be more competitive on a global scale.

About SAS Automation

SAS is a leading supplier of modular EOAT components and robotic gripper systems – capable of servicing any part and any robot. SAS manufactures in the U.S. “get a grip!”, and distributes “nip it!” Nile sprue nipper line, and “GRIP IT!“ Asian chucking/gripper line. SAS is ISO 9001:2000 Quality Certified and specialists in robotic end-of-arm tooling & gripper systems, sprue nippers, CNC degating & Insert Mold tooling for manufacturing, packaging & plastics industries. 

SAS Automation Robotergreifsysteme GmbH - Europe
Im Schlehert 26
D-76187 Karlsruhe, Germany
Tel: +49 (0)721 26306 - 0
Email: info@sas-automation.com
Web: www.sas-automation.com