Consecutive Gripper Assembly for Product Orientation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gripper assemblies for handling food products often struggle with efficiently positioning and orienting products during transportation and deposition, leading to potential tilting or uneven placement.
Innovation Solution
A gripper assembly comprising a main body with two consecutively arranged grippers, each with a product carrier and drive mechanism, allowing for parallel movement between release and receiving positions to form a common product receiving surface, enabling controlled product orientation and deposition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a single gripper is used to handle products, then the device complexity is low, but the productivity and positioning precision are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The gripper assembly is divided into multiple independent grippers (first gripper and second gripper) that can operate separately. Each gripper has its own product carrier and drive mechanism, allowing independent control and movement. This segmentation enables parallel handling operations, improving productivity while maintaining manageable complexity through modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple grippers are combined into a single integrated gripper assembly that shares a common body structure and control system. The first and second grippers work together to form a common product receiving surface, enabling coordinated handling operations that improve efficiency while sharing structural and control resources to manage overall complexity.
2Manufacturing precision
If products are dropped from between two jaws, then the gripping function is achieved, but the product tilts and positioning precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The gripper transitions from a single-point contact gripping mechanism to a distributed surface contact mechanism. By arranging product carriers in a configuration that forms a common receiving surface, the system distributes the contact area across multiple dimensions, preventing product tilting and improving positioning precision while maintaining ease of operation through the coordinated movement of individual grippers.
3Area of stationary object
If multiple grippers are arranged consecutively, then the product receiving surface area is increased, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The product receiving surface is segmented into multiple independent carrier surfaces, each associated with a separate gripper. This segmentation allows the area to be increased by adding more carriers while maintaining manageable complexity through modular, independent units that can be controlled separately but work together to form the complete receiving surface.
Solution Approach 2:
Each gripper and product carrier unit is designed as a universal module that can function independently or in combination with other units. The same basic design is repeated for multiple grippers, allowing the system to scale in area while maintaining consistent structural and control patterns that manage complexity through standardization.
Data Source
AI summary
A gripper assembly comprises a main body for attachment to a travel device, a first gripper attached to the main body and a second gripper attached to the main body. The first gripper comprises a first product carrier and a first drive configured to move the first product carrier parallel to a transverse direction between a first release position and a first receiving position. The second gripper comprises a second product carrier and a second drive configured to move the second product carrier parallel to the transverse direction between a second release position and a second receiving position. The first and second grippers are located consecutively along a longitudinal direction perpendicular to the transverse direction, so that the first and second product carriers jointly form at least part of a common product receiving surface when the first and second product carriers are in the first and second receiving positions, respectively.