Research on Developing of a Reconfigurable Gripping Mechanism with Electric Drive

Abstract The paper consists in analyzing some of the researches on specialized literature regarding to gripping systems and proposing a new solution for a gripping mechanism that can fulfill the increasing requirements imposed by the flexible manufacturing systems regarding the orientation and positioning of parts with variable shape and dimensions. Some general consideration on state of the art in the field of gripping mechanism are presented and main development direction are indicated. The second part of the paper contains in the development of new gripper constructive solution. From the literature analysis the main requirement for a gripping system is the multi-tasking ability. The proposed designed solution uses four parallel open-close jaws/fingers controlled by two electric motors. The actuation of the jaws/fingers for clamping the part is accomplished by a primary motor. The main contribution/improvement refers to the introducing of a second/supplementary motor that is used for the movement of the position of the jaws in order to transform the gripper clamping system from a four-jaw construction to a two-jaw gripper construction and vice versa, thus increasing range of clamped parts.