Custom Fingertips

Tyler_Berryman

I recently spoke with someone who was using custom fingertips on a 2F85 gripper to get a slightly larger range and to be able to scoop up cans. Have you used any custom fingertips for a gripper? Maybe a custom shape, length or even using a specific material for the fingertips? 

Grady_Turner

@Tyler_Berryman  2-3 times per week we print custom fingertips for the gripper to test customers' parts.  They are all designed based on the part we are picking and any other task that may be associated with picking.  We print with ABS plastic.  3D printing in general is great for proving concepts and testing, but not so great for long term reliability/robustness.. We usually print several copies because we end up breaking them during testing (either by crashing them into objects or because grip force is too high for the design)

Tyler_Berryman

@Grady_Turner And what type of modifications do you typically make on the fingertips? Wider fingertips? Longer fingertips? Use a radius to grip cylindrical parts? Augmented opening range?
And once the proof of concept has been tested, do you get a copy of the custom fingertips made out of metal for the customer?

Grady_Turner

@Tyler_Berryman  It is all custom designed for the part.  We have added length even to the 140 tips, also narrow because of the nest we had to navigate.  We have done cylindrical fingerswith built in "shelves" for engaging features on the cylinder in order to torque them down (putting a cap on a bottle).  We have made very small tips designed for ID gripping small magnets.  It really depends on the application requirements and part dimensions.

Usually in the paid proof of concepts we give the customer our design and specify that they are designed to be 3D printed, and that metal fingers could be redesigned more efficiently.  We also give the option of us designing for a specified material (usually Aluminum)

Beachy

I have redesigned everyone of the gripper pads on 4 units that I currently have. Basic redesign to allow of part separation when grabbing a part. Basically the same gripper as comes with the gripper, but a high angle chamfer and an adhesive backed rubber pad. The gripper pads that come with the gripper are too expensive to use when you can wear out pads once a week.

matthewd92

We've done a number of custom fingers on the grippers. Like @Grady_Turner we will 3D print them often to make sure they are right. Here's an example of fingers that we designed and had machined out of 316 SS for a machine tending application. The fingers were designed to be able to grip the part on the OD, ID and pull a sacrificial plug from inside the part. 

matthewd92

@Beachy how is the adhesive backed rubber holding up?  

We had some of the original grippers with the rubber booties on the fingers, those wore out quickly. We actually built molds and would cast urethane over the face of the finger and that worked pretty well.