Precision Gripper Guide Rails With Adjustable Play Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gripping devices face limitations in achieving high clamping force with minimal installation space, low intrinsic mass, while requiring high precision, resilience, and wear resistance, and often suffer from increased guide wear and play due to short guide lengths and associated increased guide play.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves a gripping device with trapezoidal guide rails and adjustable guide play, where guide rails with trapezoidal cross-sections are used, and the guide play is adjusted by shifting these rails or combining components using the sliding wedge principle to achieve precise alignment and reduced wear, allowing for micrometer-level adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the guide length of slides is kept short to minimize installation space, then the device compactness is improved, but guide wear increases and guide play becomes greater
Solution Approach 1:
The guide system is segmented into separate guide rails that can be independently adjusted. The guide rails are divided into multiple sections that can be positioned and adjusted separately, allowing for precise alignment and minimal guide play even with short guide lengths.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide rails are made adjustable rather than fixed. The adjustment mechanism allows the guide rails to be dynamically repositioned to optimize the guide play compensation, enabling the system to adapt to wear over time and maintain precision despite short guide lengths.
2Manufacturing precision
If adjustable guide rails are implemented to reduce guide play, then guiding accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide rails are pre-adjusted during assembly to the correct position and orientation. Adjustment slots and pre-positioned features allow the guide rails to be quickly aligned and secured, minimizing the complexity of the adjustment mechanism while achieving high guiding accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide rail position is adjusted by changing the lateral and longitudinal parameters of the guide rail mounting. The adjustment slots provide discrete position options that allow fine-tuning of the guide rail alignment, achieving micrometer-level accuracy without complex adjustment mechanisms.
3Reliability
If trapezoidal guide rails with inclined contact joints are used, then guide play is reduced, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide rail cross-section is designed as a trapezoid with asymmetric dimensions. The inclined contact joints have specific angles (e.g., 5-10 degrees) that are optimized to compensate for guide play in one direction while maintaining stability in the other direction. This asymmetric geometry is manufactured using standard machining operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The inclined contact joints of the trapezoidal guide rails are designed with optimized curvature and angle to achieve self-aligning properties. The specific geometric parameters of the trapezoidal shape are chosen to distribute contact stresses evenly and minimize guide play through geometric compensation rather than complex adjustment mechanisms.
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
This configuration enhances gripping force, precision, and wear resistance by allowing for precise adjustment of guide play, reducing unnecessary wear, and enabling the use of load-bearing or low-friction surfaces as needed, thereby improving the overall performance of the gripping device.
Implementation Method 1
For adjusting the guide play, various components are combined in pairs according to the sliding wedge principle in order to achieve a guide play-adjusting or guide play-reducing adjustment by mutually sliding the combined components.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a gripping device, comprising slides which support movable gripping elements. The slides are guided in a driven manner one behind the other parallel to the gripping direction in a shared guiding groove which is arranged in a main part and which is open towards the gripping elements in at least some regions, and the slides are stored transversely to the gripping direction so as to be supported on all sides. At least one slide guiding rail is fixed in each rail guiding groove. At least one rail guiding groove and at least one slide guiding rail mounted therein has, per slide or per slide pair, a respective mutually contacting contact surface which is inclined with respect to the vertical central longitudinal plane of the guide at an angle of 0.3 to 1.3 angular degrees. The present invention provides a braking and/or clamping mechanism which has great clamping power while requiring little space and having a low net weight. In addition, the guiding system should be capable of supporting high loads, highly precise and wear-resistant.