Pick and Place Gripper with Compressing Frame for Deformable Food
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gripper devices for deformable food items face challenges such as disturbance and imbalance during packaging, risk of food products falling, and difficulty in achieving accurate multilayer positioning due to varying thicknesses and deformability, leading to suboptimal packaging appearance and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A pick and place gripper device with a pair of jaws and a frame structure that compresses deformable food items into a compact pre-shaped form, ensuring secure holding and precise repositioning, using a spring system to release the items in a controlled manner, and accommodating tail portions for efficient stacking and tray filling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the gripping means simply pushes neighboring food products to create space for releasing, then the releasing operation is simple, but the neighboring food products are disturbed and the tray may move causing packaging failure
Solution Approach 1:
A support surface is introduced as an intermediary element between the gripping means and the tray bottom. The support surface receives the food product from the gripping means and transfers it to the tray, preventing direct contact between the gripping means and tray that would cause disturbance. This mediator absorbs the impact and ensures stable packaging without requiring complex control mechanisms.
2Ease of manufacture
If the gripping sides of the jaws have different friction, then the gripping mechanism is simple to manufacture, but the food product becomes imbalanced and may rotate during releasing destroying appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The releasing function is extracted from the gripping mechanism and transferred to the support surface. The jaws only need to hold the food product during transport, while the support surface performs the gentle placement operation. This separation allows the gripping mechanism to remain simple while achieving precise positioning through the dedicated support surface that controls the release process.
3Ease of manufacture
If the gripping means is open at both sides, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but there is always a risk that food products can fall out during movement
Solution Approach 1:
The food product containment function is segmented between the gripping means and the support surface. The open-sided gripping means holds the food product during pickup, while the support surface provides additional containment during transfer and release. This division of functions allows both components to remain structurally simple while collectively ensuring reliable food product retention throughout the entire operation.
4Manufacturing precision
If the gripping means is moved very close to the bottom of the tray for accurate positioning, then the positioning precision is improved, but the gripping means must be re-programmed for multiple height locations when making multilayers
Solution Approach 1:
The support surface acts as an intermediary that enables accurate placement without requiring the gripping means to operate at multiple precise height locations. The gripping means can maintain a consistent operating height while the support surface adapts to different tray configurations and multilayer requirements, simplifying the overall system programming while maintaining placement precision.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The gripper device effectively maintains deformable food items in a compact, uniform shape, reducing the risk of falling and enhancing packaging appearance and efficiency by allowing precise positioning and minimizing tray size, while ensuring accurate placement and alignment in multilayer configurations.
Implementation Method 1
said pick and place gripper device further comprises a spring system configured to be at least partly in a compressed state so as to preserve a pressure onto the deformable food item, the subsequent movement of the frame structure down to the stop position being caused by a release of the spring system from being in at least partly in the compressed state
Data Source
Figure 1(a)~1(i)
Figure 2~3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
This invention relates to a pick and place gripper device for picking up and re-positioning a deformable food item carried by a support surface. A pair of jaws is provided configured to move by a first moving means from an open position to a closed position, and vice versa, where the jaws are designed such that in the closed position the jaws define a cavity for shaping and carrying the deformable food item where the cavity comprises a side wall and a bottom. The pick and place gripper device further includes a frame structure arranged between the jaws comprising an outer frame and a top frame where the outer frame essentially follows the shape of the side wall of the cavity, wherein after picking up the deformable food item by the jaws, the frame structure is configured to move downwards by a second moving means towards the deformable food item such that the outer frame moves between the side wall and the deformable food item and supplies a pressure onto the deformable food item causing the deformable food item to be at least partly compressed into the frame structure where it is retained in a compact pre-shaped form, wherein when releasing the deformable food item from the jaws are moved from the closed position to the open position while the frame structure preserves the deformable food item in the compact pre-shaped form, wherein the frame structure subsequently moves down to a stop position causing a releasing of the deformable food item in the compact pre-shaped form at the re-positioning position.