A foundry, making different car suspension parts, was using a gripper with a dust cover to grind and deburr parts out of a press.  They were having issues with the gripper and getting debris in the guideways and not being able to actuate the gripper. When visited by Zimmer Group we looked at the application and noticed many different variables that could affect the gripper.

The first thing noticed was how dirty the robot, the ground and all the surroundings were: completely covered in black dust. The gripper needs the guideways to be protected or the gripper would become damaged just by the actuation of the unit. Next was the part was being getting deburred against the grinding wheel, and we need to know that the gripper can handle the extra moment load from the wheel.

The 5000 series was the first gripper we would go to in our product line up. The 5000 series is an IP64 gripper out of the box and standard, so we do not have to wait for the gripper, it is on the shelf ready to go, and that was important to the customer because if they had a robot crash it is a quick replacement. Next the steel on steel guides can handle the high moment loads of the grinding wheel. Whether the application is dirty or not the 5000 series, from two, three or angled jawed grippers, it will be able to handle almost any application.