Balanced Pneumatic Manipulator Slide Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional balanced pneumatic manipulators experience increased manual effort and instability due to angular deviations of the pneumatic actuator, leading to adverse effects on safety and accuracy, especially when handling varying loads.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a slide with parallel linear guides that minimizes friction and ensures the pneumatic actuator transmits only vertical forces, maintaining constant balancing and minimal manual effort across different positions, using a cylindrical roller or sliding block engaged in perpendicular guides to stabilize the manipulator.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the pneumatic actuator operates at angular deviations from the vertical axis, then the manipulator can reach different positions, but the manual effort required increases and balancing becomes non-constant
Solution Approach 1:
A slide mechanism with parallel linear guides is introduced as an intermediary between the pneumatic actuator and the swing arm. This slide ensures that the actuator's linear motion is converted to rotational motion of the swing arm while maintaining a constant vertical line of action for the actuator, thereby eliminating horizontal force components and maintaining constant balancing across the entire range of motion.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the pneumatic actuator deviates from the vertical position, then the manipulator achieves greater positioning flexibility, but horizontal force components increase causing instability
Solution Approach 1:
The slide mechanism acts as a mediator that decouples the positioning flexibility from the force transmission direction. The parallel linear guides of the slide constrain the actuator to move only vertically, ensuring that the line of action of the actuator remains parallel to the vertical axis z throughout the entire range of motion, thus eliminating horizontal force components that would compromise stability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the actuator angle varies with position, then the manipulator can cover a wider workspace, but the manual effort increases from 20-30 N to 100-150 N
Solution Approach 1:
The slide mechanism with parallel guides serves as a force-transmission intermediary that maintains a constant vertical line of action for the pneumatic actuator. This allows the swing arm to rotate through a wide range of angles while the actuator itself remains vertically oriented, thereby maintaining constant balancing and keeping manual effort at optimal levels (20-30 N) throughout the entire workspace.
Data Source
AI summary
The manipulator comprises a supporting device (11) having an assembly (13) rotatable about a vertical axis and an articulated parallelogram (21) with a swing arm (24). A pneumatic linear actuator (22), acts between the rotatable assembly (13) and the articulated parallelogram (21), for causing the arm (24) to rotate about a horizontal axis of oscillation. A slide (23) is connected to the actuator (22) and slidably mounted on the rotatable assembly (13) by means of a first vertical guide (30). The slide has a second horizontal guide (31) in which is engaged an element (32, 33) mounted on the swing arm (24).