The invention relates to a gripping device adapted to be mounted on the arm of a robot, particularly to grasp and position a piece of automobile body work.
There are known gripping devices, particularly devices produced and sold by the French company M.F.G., which have a structure provided by the three-dimensional assembly of individual elements connected by securement stays.
There are also known gripping devices comprising a tubular central portion on which are mounted adjustable sliding collars.
In these two types of known devices, the arms mounted on the central structure are not positioned with the desired precision and have drawbacks from insufficient inertia leading to excessive bending of the ends, and insufficient rigidity.
The invention has for its object to overcome the mentioned drawbacks, by providing a new gripping device comprising modular elements, which can be assembled with high precision, such that the produced assembly has high rigidity and strength that is satisfactory over time.
The invention has for its object a gripping device adapted to be mounted on a robot arm, comprising a central beam having good characteristics of inertia in bending and torsion, and at least one arm secured to the beam detachably and adapted to support a member for positioning, holding or gripping a piece of automobile body work.
According to other characteristics of the invention:
the central beam is hollow, so as to lighten the central beam whilst keeping good characteristics of inertia in bending and torsion,
each arm comprises an indexing configuration along the central beam and securement means to the central beam,
the central beam carries on the side opposite the stay for mounting to the robot arm, a plurality of regularly spaced indexing configurations,
the central beam and each arm are assembled by the use of two rectangular dihedrals indexed relative to each other by coacting indexing configurations,
the indexing configurations comprise at least one mortis and at least one tenon in the shape of a right prism, preferably substantially parallelepipedal,
each arm comprises at its end opposite the central beam securement means to secure a member for positioning, holding or gripping a piece of automobile body work,
each arm comprises a narrowed portion permitting breaking the arm in case of shock against an obstacle or under too great mechanical stress,
each arm is reversible, so as to limit the number of arms,
the device comprises at least one pneumatic supply comprising a plurality of tubular conduits supplied by a distributor secured preferably to the central beam.