Research And Development Of Modular Pneumatic Handling Robot

With the development of the manufacturing industry in China and its fierce competition, a high requirement in efficiency is needed. It is a very urgent necessity for some machine manufacturers to automate the part loading and unloading on a NC lathe. Some manufacturers in China have equipped the NC lathes with automatic part loading and unloading manipulators. The manipulators used are usually driven by servo electro motors with high precision, which are expensive in price, complex in structure and low in speed and efficient. These are the problems, which prevent its wide application on NC lathes.The purpose of the research is to design a modular pneumatic manipulator, which has the function of automatic part loading and unloading and at the same time has a higher efficiency and lower cost against its servo actuated counterpart. The main works accomplished in the paper include: (1) the mechanical design of the modular pneumatic manipulator; (2) the supporting structure of the pneumatic cylinder with a long span; (3) the anti-overturn technique of the horizontal pneumatic cylinder; (4) the high precision adjusting technique of the pneumatic cylinder with flexibility; (5) the design of the pneumatic circuit and the PLC-based control system; (6) the testing of the system. It is proved that the specifications are reached and the performance is good.By the theoretical research and practical experiment, the technical difficulties concerned with the pneumatic loading and unloading manipulator have been resolved. A set of modular pneumatic loading and unloading manipulator has been developed. This product can supply industry field with feasible technique criterions, and promote the application of the pneumatics in industry field.