Novel Additive Manufacturing Pneumatic Actuators and Mechanisms for Food Handling Grippers
Conventional pneumatic grippers are widely used in industrial pick and place robot processes for rigid objects. They are simple, robust and fast, but their design, motion and features are limited, and they do not fulfil the final purpose. Food products have a wide variety of shapes and textures and...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2014-07-01
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| Series: | Actuators |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/3/3/205 |
| _version_ | 1818842455007559680 |
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| author | Carlos Blanes Martín Mellado Pablo Beltran |
| author_facet | Carlos Blanes Martín Mellado Pablo Beltran |
| author_sort | Carlos Blanes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Conventional pneumatic grippers are widely used in industrial pick and place robot processes for rigid objects. They are simple, robust and fast, but their design, motion and features are limited, and they do not fulfil the final purpose. Food products have a wide variety of shapes and textures and are susceptible to damaged. Robot grippers for food handling should adapt to this wide range of dimensions and must be fast, cheap, reasonably reliable, and with cheap and reasonable maintenance costs. They should not damage the product and must meet hygienic conditions. The additive manufacturing (AM) process is able to manufacture parts without significant restrictions, and is Polyamide approved as food contact material by FDA. This paper presents that, taking the best of plastic flexibility, AM allows the implementation of novel actuators, original compliant mechanisms and practical grippers that are cheap, light, fast, small and easily adaptable to specific food products. However, if they are not carefully designed, the results can present problems, such as permanent deformations, low deformation limits, and low operation speed. We present possible solutions for the use of AM to design proper robot grippers for food handling. Some successful results, such as AM actuators based on deformable air chambers, AM compliant mechanisms, and grippers developed in a single part will be introduced and discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T04:42:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-263340404117492f8b0a90fde06009ae |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0825 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T04:42:14Z |
| publishDate | 2014-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Actuators |
| spelling | doaj.art-263340404117492f8b0a90fde06009ae2022-12-21T20:35:34ZengMDPI AGActuators2076-08252014-07-013320522510.3390/act3030205act3030205Novel Additive Manufacturing Pneumatic Actuators and Mechanisms for Food Handling GrippersCarlos Blanes0Martín Mellado1Pablo Beltran2Instituto de Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de València/Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia 46022, SpainInstituto de Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de València/Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia 46022, SpainInstituto de Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de València/Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia 46022, SpainConventional pneumatic grippers are widely used in industrial pick and place robot processes for rigid objects. They are simple, robust and fast, but their design, motion and features are limited, and they do not fulfil the final purpose. Food products have a wide variety of shapes and textures and are susceptible to damaged. Robot grippers for food handling should adapt to this wide range of dimensions and must be fast, cheap, reasonably reliable, and with cheap and reasonable maintenance costs. They should not damage the product and must meet hygienic conditions. The additive manufacturing (AM) process is able to manufacture parts without significant restrictions, and is Polyamide approved as food contact material by FDA. This paper presents that, taking the best of plastic flexibility, AM allows the implementation of novel actuators, original compliant mechanisms and practical grippers that are cheap, light, fast, small and easily adaptable to specific food products. However, if they are not carefully designed, the results can present problems, such as permanent deformations, low deformation limits, and low operation speed. We present possible solutions for the use of AM to design proper robot grippers for food handling. Some successful results, such as AM actuators based on deformable air chambers, AM compliant mechanisms, and grippers developed in a single part will be introduced and discussed.http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/3/3/205additive manufacturinggripperscompliant actuatorscompliant mechanismsfood handlingindustrial robotics |
| spellingShingle | Carlos Blanes Martín Mellado Pablo Beltran Novel Additive Manufacturing Pneumatic Actuators and Mechanisms for Food Handling Grippers Actuators additive manufacturing grippers compliant actuators compliant mechanisms food handling industrial robotics |
| title | Novel Additive Manufacturing Pneumatic Actuators and Mechanisms for Food Handling Grippers |
| title_full | Novel Additive Manufacturing Pneumatic Actuators and Mechanisms for Food Handling Grippers |
| title_fullStr | Novel Additive Manufacturing Pneumatic Actuators and Mechanisms for Food Handling Grippers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Novel Additive Manufacturing Pneumatic Actuators and Mechanisms for Food Handling Grippers |
| title_short | Novel Additive Manufacturing Pneumatic Actuators and Mechanisms for Food Handling Grippers |
| title_sort | novel additive manufacturing pneumatic actuators and mechanisms for food handling grippers |
| topic | additive manufacturing grippers compliant actuators compliant mechanisms food handling industrial robotics |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/3/3/205 |
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