Automatic tool changer enables a single robot to exchange different end effectors in the process of manufacturing and equipment to increase flexibility. It is widely used in automatic spot welding, arc welding, material snatching, stamping, detection, curling, assembly, material removal, burr cleaning, packaging and other operations. It has many advantages such as fast replacement of production line and effectively reducing downtime.
At present, foreign countries are more advanced in robot automatic replacement technology, and the automatic replacement devices have their own characteristics. They start early and have a high degree of specialization, but they are expensive and the technology is not external. Some domestic universities and research institutes have also carried out some research, but they have not formed industrialization, only for a special field. Most of the products have some shortcomings, such as low quality, low reliability, poor versatility and so on, which is far behind the advanced level of foreign countries. Famous foreign brands of fast change devices include de-sta-co, ATI, AgI, rad, etc. in addition, some robot companies such as Staubli also have different models of fast change devices.
Automatic tool changer makes the application of robot more flexible by automatically changing different end effectors or peripherals. These end effectors and peripherals include, for example, spot welding guns, grippers, vacuum tools, pneumatic and electric motors, etc. The tool changer includes a robot side for mounting on the robot arm and a tool side for mounting on the end effector. The tool changer can connect different media such as gas, electrical signal, liquid, video, ultrasound, etc. from the robot arm to the end effector. The advantages of the automatic tool changer device are as follows:
1. Production line replacement can be completed in seconds;
2. Maintenance and repair tools can be quickly replaced, greatly reducing downtime;
3. Flexibility can be increased by using more than one end effector in the application;
4. Using automatic exchange of single function end effector to replace the original heavy and complex multi-function tooling actuator.
Automatic tool changer is divided into the master side and the tool side. The robot side is installed on the front arm of the robot, and the tool side is installed on the executive tool (the tools are welding tongs, grippers, etc.). Automatic tool changer can quickly realize the communication of electricity, gas and liquid between the robot side and the executive tool. One robot side can be used with multiple tool sides according to the actual situation of users to increase the flexible manufacturing of robot production line, increase the efficiency of robot production line and reduce the production cost.