Questions with Larry Robbins

1. What should a customer consider when choosing a gripper for their manufacturing operation? First, determine if you want to use a pneumatic gripper. There are hydraulic grippers, we don’t sell them, and then there are electric grippers. Next, look at the features and benefits of each manufacturer’s gripper to realize the differences. Externally they all look the same, but internally they function differently.

2. What are the benefits of using a pneumatic or electric gripper in a manufacturing operation? Pneumatic grippers are where it all started. What are the features and benefits of pneumatics? They are cost effective, lightweight, provide high grip force, and are what people are accustomed to using. We make something a little bit different than anybody else. We make an electric gripper that can be powered two different ways. You can wire it to your unit, or you can use our inductive coupler technology. The coupler gives you a gripper that’s powered and can transmit powering data simultaneously across an air gap and gives you 360° of rotation without any impedance of clips, pneumatic lines, or electric wires. There are huge advantages, especially in cleanroom operations – whereas a pneumatic gripper must have oil inside, but the electric gripper is sealed.

3. How can sensors be used with pneumatic or electric grippers? No matter what kind of gripper, no matter what kind of workholding you’re using, you can incorporate a sensor. With pneumatic, you can record or measure movement or even use it to identify the correct gripper. If you have an RFID tag in your gripper, and it scans and goes, “Wait, you grabbed the wrong gripper,” now you don’t use the wrong tool and have catastrophic failure. With electric grippers, sensors give you full and total control along with a predictable outcome part to part. I can go to my data recording and reuse those same parameters, and I don’t have to guess where I was the last time. Sensors give you the advantage, even if you’re just going down an assembly line or a production line, you can use them in conjunction with pneumatic grippers or electric grippers, and everything feeds back so you have the perfect setups every time, allowing you to identify the right part for the right manufacturing operation.

4. What data can be measured and recorded by sensors? How can this improve manufacturing operations? Sensors measure distance or open and close, and measure movement, which is different from full travel. You can measure torque, temperature, motion, rotation, or anything you want to measure because a sensor can be made custom to the application. The data gives predictability, knowing from one job to the next what occurred to make this job more efficient and effective. It also allows you to look at other jobs done in the past, to say, “Wait a second, if we record this data, even though we’ve been running this job for 25 years, maybe we can improve our process, maybe we can decrease cycle time, maybe we can make six extra parts a day.” It all equates to bigger profits for a manufacturing facility.

For more information: https://www.smwautoblok.com