Electromagnetic Grippers for Robots Improve Wheel Hub Production Efficiency

Let’s take a look at an example of unmanned work shop, and see how the electromagnetic grippers for robots in it, help improve the wheel hub production efficiency.

What is wheel hub? Wheel hubs are a cast or machined metal part, found between the vehicle’s suspension and the wheel. Hubs connect the axle to the wheel and allow the wheel to spin smoothly with the help of a bearing.

The yellow devices, mounted at the end of the arm of gantry/cartesian robots, are what we referred to as magnetic grippers. As the name suggests, they’re mainly used to enable the robots to grip, hold, transfer, position ferrous parts in different production lines.

Before the configuration of the robot system, these heavy hubs were moved and handled by workers, which led to a very low handling efficiency and a very high labor intensity.

Later, robots were introduced into the factory, and as well as related end-of-arm tools – hydraulic grippers. After a while of running, a series of problem were discovered in the hydraulic gripping system – that there was a risk of oil leakage, which was dirty and difficult to clean. Moreover, the hydraulic grippers tend to scratch the surface of hubs, which is no good for acceptance.

Under that circumstance, they have no choice but to replace grippers for robots. And that’s what brought them to HVR MAG. Our engineers designed a magnetic gripping solution, according to the specifications of wheel hubs and the workshop’s overall working conditions.

Handling requirement: stable and safe transferring of wheel hubs; pick up 2pcs each time from the pallet, transfer and place them onto the conveyor belt for next processing procedure.

Each electromagnetic gripper for robot consists of 4pcs of HEPMP-1613S magnetic gripping heads, suitable for handling wheel hubs with varying diameters. Specifically designed & manufactured, they can grip the wheel hub at each of its end side, significantly improving the handling efficiency, a big saving on the budget of robot configuration.

In addition, our electromagnetic grippers can coordinate with robots in other material stores and conveyor lines, to help realize unmanned workshop, and thus to improve their company image.

Some may wonder, how do your electromagnetic grippers for robots work? Well, basically, our magnets are electrically switched on and off. They consume no power in gripping state, only need electricity in MAG and DEMAG phase, to grip or release the hub (workpiece).

Furthermore, our electromagnetic grippers are PLC programmable, which enables themselves to achieve different movements or actions along together with robotic arm, like rotating and flipping.

If you’re interested in our electromagnetic grippers for robots, go to our website to see more applications in automation.