The level of automation in leather industry is quite low. This fact is mainly due to the particular features of this kind of material (non-rigid structure, irregular shape, delicate surface, etc.) that make the handling on the workstations very critical and difficult to be approached. This proposal concerns a system for the robotized manipulation of plies, made of natural leather, in order to perform fully automated loading and unloading operations on finishing machines (painting, stretching machines, etc.). The system is mainly formed by a 4-axis robot, equipped with a special gripper, and an innovative spreading device used to place the grasped ply on a planar surface. The gripper has been designed in order to securely grasp different sizes of plies and different leathers. The grasping elements, formed by properly designed vacuum cups, have been developed according to a theoretical approach aimed at determining the optimal dimension of the vacuum area, in function of the porosity of the leather. The gripper moves the ply grasping it on a central area of its upper surface, determining the falling down of its borders due to the gravity. The spreader device is then used to spread the ply in order to correctly lay it on the conveyor belts of a processing machine.
An Innovative Proposal for the Automated Manipulation of Products in Leather Industry
DINI, GINO;FAILLI, FRANCO;
2007-01-01
Abstract
The level of automation in leather industry is quite low. This fact is mainly due to the particular features of this kind of material (non-rigid structure, irregular shape, delicate surface, etc.) that make the handling on the workstations very critical and difficult to be approached. This proposal concerns a system for the robotized manipulation of plies, made of natural leather, in order to perform fully automated loading and unloading operations on finishing machines (painting, stretching machines, etc.). The system is mainly formed by a 4-axis robot, equipped with a special gripper, and an innovative spreading device used to place the grasped ply on a planar surface. The gripper has been designed in order to securely grasp different sizes of plies and different leathers. The grasping elements, formed by properly designed vacuum cups, have been developed according to a theoretical approach aimed at determining the optimal dimension of the vacuum area, in function of the porosity of the leather. The gripper moves the ply grasping it on a central area of its upper surface, determining the falling down of its borders due to the gravity. The spreader device is then used to spread the ply in order to correctly lay it on the conveyor belts of a processing machine.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
