wrustle
Titanium
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2006
- Location
- Massachusetts
Had some time to take a quick 4k video of our Fanuc Robot with Haas VF-2SS.
We had the system installed last August and have become pretty comfortable with the whole system now.
After running a variety of different sized parts I have to say the only real weakness we have a concern with are the robot grippers. They are just very basic in their design and I wish they would grab onto the parts with a little more force or contact surface than they currently do.
The grippers are basically just four 5/16-18 threaded studs that screw into the plate that's mounted on the sides of the pneumatic gripper assembly. The "gripper" parts of those studs is just a smooth turned straight diameter.
This makes the contact surface of the gripper on the sides of the blanks very small, and quite easy to move the part in the grippers when closed onto the part. This can be a very big concern when moving the parts around held by the robot. You really have to be aware of the acceleration and deceleration when programming the movements, and especially for any rotational moves if using a two gripper system (one piece out, one piece in), versus a one gripper (one piece out-drop off-get new one-load in vise).
We have had instances of parts only being partially clamped in the vise due to blank movement upon entry to the vise, and subsequently ripped out in very short order since we are always using high speed machining toolpaths. There is a special tool (plunger) that seats the blank in the vise after being loaded, but if the part is not seated flat and the serrated jaws close on it, the jaws close on the radius of the extruded corner and blow material out the bottom of the blank so when the plunger goes to seat it, it is now sitting on a big chunk of aluminum on the bottom and once again the serrated jaws are only clamping on a partial surface. Once that endmill or face mill comes in contact with that surface sticking up, it's ripped out in short order!
Fortunately, there is always someone close by in the shop to go over and stop the cycle, but for this reason only, we have not been able to run lights out yet until we come with a new design and make some better grippers for our applications.
For now though, "WALL-E" (as he's been affectionately named) has made a significant impact in our shop. He runs all day long, through breaks, and lunch, and chews through the workload without a single complaint!
The parts you will see in the video run for approx. 60 minutes before someone needs to go over and remove the finished parts from the loading fixture (a new design we came up with and made in house) and load with new blanks which takes only a couple minutes to do.
Then WALL-E goes back to work all by himself for the next hour.
Life is good!
Later,
Russ
We had the system installed last August and have become pretty comfortable with the whole system now.
After running a variety of different sized parts I have to say the only real weakness we have a concern with are the robot grippers. They are just very basic in their design and I wish they would grab onto the parts with a little more force or contact surface than they currently do.
The grippers are basically just four 5/16-18 threaded studs that screw into the plate that's mounted on the sides of the pneumatic gripper assembly. The "gripper" parts of those studs is just a smooth turned straight diameter.
This makes the contact surface of the gripper on the sides of the blanks very small, and quite easy to move the part in the grippers when closed onto the part. This can be a very big concern when moving the parts around held by the robot. You really have to be aware of the acceleration and deceleration when programming the movements, and especially for any rotational moves if using a two gripper system (one piece out, one piece in), versus a one gripper (one piece out-drop off-get new one-load in vise).
We have had instances of parts only being partially clamped in the vise due to blank movement upon entry to the vise, and subsequently ripped out in very short order since we are always using high speed machining toolpaths. There is a special tool (plunger) that seats the blank in the vise after being loaded, but if the part is not seated flat and the serrated jaws close on it, the jaws close on the radius of the extruded corner and blow material out the bottom of the blank so when the plunger goes to seat it, it is now sitting on a big chunk of aluminum on the bottom and once again the serrated jaws are only clamping on a partial surface. Once that endmill or face mill comes in contact with that surface sticking up, it's ripped out in short order!
Fortunately, there is always someone close by in the shop to go over and stop the cycle, but for this reason only, we have not been able to run lights out yet until we come with a new design and make some better grippers for our applications.
For now though, "WALL-E" (as he's been affectionately named) has made a significant impact in our shop. He runs all day long, through breaks, and lunch, and chews through the workload without a single complaint!
The parts you will see in the video run for approx. 60 minutes before someone needs to go over and remove the finished parts from the loading fixture (a new design we came up with and made in house) and load with new blanks which takes only a couple minutes to do.
Then WALL-E goes back to work all by himself for the next hour.
Life is good!
Later,
Russ
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