Multi-axis Robot Wrist Internal Cable Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing multi-axis industrial robots face issues with cable and pipe harnessing, including entanglement, deformation, and premature wear due to exposure to aggressive agents in industrial environments, leading to frequent replacements and reduced productivity.
Innovation Solution
A multi-axis industrial robot design featuring a hollow robot wrist with a continuous internal passage for cables and pipes, integrated into the robot structure, and a compact welding head with protected cable and pipe routing, minimizing exposure and facilitating easy maintenance through quick couplings and a sealed casing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If cables and pipes are routed externally through the robot wrist, then installation and maintenance become simpler, but the cables are exposed to aggressive agents causing premature wear and entanglement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements nesting by routing cables and pipes through the hollow interior of the robot wrist structure. The wrist contains internal passages that guide the harnessing from the base through the wrist to the tool, protecting it from external exposure while maintaining routing simplicity through the natural hollow space of the wrist.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a flexible protective sheath or casing that encloses the cables and pipes within the robot wrist. This flexible shell protects the harnessing from aggressive agents like weld splatter and dirt while allowing the necessary movements and deformations of the robot wrist during operation.
2Reliability
If cables and pipes are protected from external exposure, then wear and contamination are reduced, but the robot structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The robot wrist serves multiple functions: it provides the mechanical articulation for robot movement and simultaneously acts as a protective conduit for the cable and pipe harnessing. By making the wrist hollow and routing the harnessing through its interior, the same structural component performs both motion control and protection functions, avoiding additional complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the protective function with the existing robot wrist structure by creating an integrated hollow passage system. Instead of adding separate protective conduits, the design combines the structural wrist with the protective routing channel, eliminating redundant components while ensuring cable protection.
3Duration of action of moving object
If the robot wrist is made hollow to protect cables, then cable lifespan increases, but the wrist structure requires more complex manufacturing
Solution Approach 1:
The robot wrist is divided into segmented hollow sections, each with internal passages for cable routing. This segmentation allows for modular manufacturing where each wrist segment can be produced separately with integrated cable channels, then assembled together. The segmentation makes the hollow structure manufacturable using standard robotic wrist modular designs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes the internal three-dimensional space of the hollow wrist structure to route cables along the length of the wrist segments. By exploiting the longitudinal dimension and internal volume of the wrist, the design creates protection pathways without adding external complexity, routing cables through the available internal passage space.
4Productivity
If quick couplings are used for tool replacement, then maintenance speed increases, but cable routing becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the cable and pipe connections from the tool interface and relocates them to the robot wrist structure. By taking out the harnessing connection point from the tool flange and placing it in the wrist, the tool can be quickly detached and replaced without disturbing the cable routing, enabling rapid tool changes while keeping cable management simple in the wrist.
Data Source
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AI summary
An industrial robot comprising a robot chain of elements (12, 13, 14, 16, 18), mutually articulated between themselves and ending with a robot wrist (20) bearing a tool (100). Through the robot chain of elements and through the robot wrist (20) a continuous internal passage is defined, in which one or more cables and/or pipes for the power supply and/or the fluid supply to the tool (100) are received. The cables and pipes continue without interruption in a passage (F1) through the flange of the robot up to respective connections of said tool, whereby the cables and pipes are arranged completely inside the robot and inside the tool, without the need to provide separate cables and pipes of the tool connected to the cables and the pipes of the robot at the flange of the robot. In the case that the tool is an electric spot welding head it is arranged with an electrical transformer having its output poles (118, 119) arranged respectively on a front wall of the body of the transformer and on an end wall of the body of the transformer, for connection to the electrode-holding arms (103, 104) of the head. In this way the size of the head in the longitudinal direction which goes from the flange of the robot towards the electrodes results in being more compact. The structure of the welding head is completely covered by a casing (105) having a rear opening for connection to the robot wrist and a front opening from which the electrode -holding arms (103, 104) of the welding head protrude.