SCHUNK is building on its advantage when it comes to grippers for collaborative operation: with the SCHUNK Co-act gripper EGP-C, the competence leader for gripping systems and clamping technology is presenting for the first time an inherently safe industrial gripper that is certified and approved for collaborative operation by the German Social Accident Insur-ance DGUV. The compact 2 finger parallel gripper enclosed with a collision protection cover covers a wide range of applications ā from small component assembly in electronics and consumer goods industry right up to assembly applications in the automotive sector. At SCHUNK, the EGP-C Co-act is already prototypical of an HRC workstation in gripper assembly.
The SCHUNK EGP-C Co-act gripper certified for HRC applications facilitates collaborative scenarios in small component assembly.
Here, the worker takes on assembly and quality control, while the robot removes adhesive residues on a sharp-edged extraction plate with the gripper. This improves ergonomics and minimizes the risk of injury for the employee. The EGP-C Co-act satisfies the requirements of ISO/TS 15066 and is designed so that it cannot injure a person. A safe current limitation ensures that the requirements for collaborative applications are reliably satisfied. The grip-per can be controlled extremely simply and via digital I/O. Thanks to an operating voltage of 24V DC, it is also suitable for mobile applications.
Simplified safety observation for overall application
The EGP-C Co-act is supplied as a completely pre-assembled unit with the right interface for the cobots of KUKA, Fanuc or Universal Robots. Interfaces for robots from other manufac-turers are possible upon request. Furthermore, programming modules are envisaged for all conventional cobots which will further reduce the commissioning effort. The entire regula-tion and power electronics are fitted in the interior of the gripper, meaning they don’t take up any space in the electrical cabinet. Brushless and thus maintenance-free servomotors as well as a powerful junction roller guides guarantee a high level of efficiency, and transforms it into a dynamic and high-performance expert for demanding handling of small and medi-um-sized parts. Within the reliable finger length, the gripper fingers obtain an approximate-ly constant gripping force and speed over the entire stroke. In order to make the collabora-tion with the operator as fluid and as intuitive as possible, the gripper is fitted with LED light-ing in traffic light colors, by means of which the user can signal the respective condition of the module. The certified gripper for small components is available from the first quarter of 2018 in size 40 with a finger stroke of 6 mm and a maximum workpiece weight of 0.7 kg. The gripping force can be adjusted by means of a rotary encoding switch in several incre-ments. Additional sizes will follow in the first half of 2018.
