Pneumatic Linear Gripper Body Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing linear pneumatic grippers are cumbersome, heavy, complex, and costly to assemble, with potential dimensional errors affecting precision and movement due to multiple components and assembly requirements.
Innovation Solution
A simplified pneumatic linear gripper design using a gripper body composed of two identical shells forming both the chamber and slide guides, with an integral pneumatic piston having a wider section than height, reducing the number of components and assembly complexity, and eliminating the need for additional guide elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If traditional linear pneumatic grippers are designed with separate body, chamber, and guide elements, then the structural integrity is maintained, but the device complexity and assembly cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The gripper body integrates multiple functions: it forms the piston chamber, provides guide surfaces for the jaws, and serves as the mounting structure. This merging of functions reduces the number of separate components while maintaining structural integrity and guiding precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The gripper body is designed as a multi-functional element that simultaneously acts as a structural support, a pneumatic chamber container, and a guide mechanism for the jaws, eliminating the need for separate guide elements and reducing overall complexity.
2Ease of manufacture
If multiple separate components are assembled to form the gripper, then manufacturing flexibility is improved, but assembly time and labour costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
By integrating the chamber and guide elements into the gripper body as a single component, the number of assembly operations is reduced, thereby decreasing assembly time and labour costs while maintaining manufacturing flexibility through the modular jaw and piston components.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional gripper design with cylindrical piston is used, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but the gripper dimensions and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The piston cross-section is changed from a traditional circular shape to a rectangular shape with width greater than height. This parameter change allows for a more compact gripper design with reduced dimensions and weight while maintaining the same pneumatic power and force generation capability.
4Ease of manufacture
If dimensional tolerances of individual components are not tightly controlled, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but jaw movement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The guide surfaces are integrated directly into the gripper body, which is manufactured as a single piece. This eliminates the need for separate guide elements and reduces the number of interfaces where tolerance accumulation could occur, thereby improving jaw movement precision without requiring excessively tight tolerances on individual components.
Data Source
AI summary
A linear pneumatic gripper including a gripper body (11) with a chamber (15), a piston (12) moving alternately in the chamber (15) and a pair of sliding gripper jaws (13) associated with and moving in opposite directions with the piston, and where the gripper body (11) is made up of two elements (14), or identical shells, joined face to face to form at the same time the chamber (15) for the piston (12) and the slide guides (16) for the jaws (13), and the piston (12) is in particular integral with the translation devices (22) for the movements of the jaws of the grippers in opposite directions.