Robot Tools
Robotics and Automation Corporation, Minneapolis, Minnesota
manufactures equipment for robotic systems, in particular a variety
of tools known as "end effectors," devices attached
to the end of a robot arm for picking up, grasping, manipulating
and transferring objects. The company traces its lineage to 1981,
when a predecessor organization-INTEC Corporation-was formed
to design and market robotic peripheral equipment. In May 1984
INTEC became Mecanotron Corporation and in 1989 Mecanotron was
sold and incorporated into Robotics and Automation Corporation.
A Rocketdyne technician inspects welds on the Space Shuttle
Main Engine created by an advanced robotic system.
Among the company's newer products is the Automatic Robotics
Tool-change System (ARTS), a system designed to meet growing
demand for multiple task work cells for welding and plasma spray
functions that require grinding and finishing; deburring, deflashing,
routing, hole drilling or parts replacement; and multiple tool
disk operations. The technology incorporated in ARTS systems
was originally developed under contracts with Marshall Space
Flight Center and with Rockwell International, one of NASA's
principal contractors.
The ARTS systems were designed to work with the company's
CFD (Constant/controlled Force Device) product line, a series
of end effectors and bench mounted devices for controlling the
constant pressure of abrasive tools used to deburr, grind, polish
and finish products fabricated by welding, casting, molding,
forging or machining.
Robotics and Automation Corporation's CFD line includes three
end-of-arm devices and two bench-mounted devices. They do not
require that the robot apply and control the force, only that
it move along a normal programmed path over the work piece; the
CFD applies and maintains the required processing pressure of
the finishing media to the work piece.
The tool rack of the Automatic Robotics Tool-change System
includes a two-finger gripper, a grinder, a coated abrasive brush
and a welding torch.
When the surface to be finished is very rough and coarse,
several different grades of finishing media may be needed, as
well as different speed and power as the surface finish is transformed.
To accommodate this multistep process within a single work cell,
and with a single robot, Robotics and Automation Corporation
developed the automated tool-change system.
The ARTS-I is being used in industrial systems with six tool
positions ranging from coarse sanding disks and abrasive wheels
to cloth polishing wheels with motors of various horsepower.
The ARTS-II allows a robot to change welding torches automatically,
or to exchange a welding torch for a CFD end effector to finish
a welded assembly with a welding robot; using a second tool-changer
(ARTS-I) enables finishing the surface conditioning process.
Robotics and Automation Corporation has sold more than 90
robotic work cells using CFD/ARTS devices, about one fourth of
them in the plastics industry. The largest single user category
is fabricators of plastic body parts for the auto industry; other
uses range from fabrication of radar domes by Texas Instruments
to advanced composites at Aerospatiale in France.
The quick disconnect system allows changing tools
with hydraulic, pneumatic or electric power.
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