Gripper assembly for lifting a flexible semi-finished product from a support, and a corresponding method
AssigneeOLBRICH GmbH
InventorDominic Wilken
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A gripper arrangement for lifting a flexible semi-finished product from a support, wherein the gripper arrangement comprises a flexible semi-finished product resting on a support and at least one pair of grippers with a suction gripper or needle gripper and with at least one clamping gripper, wherein the suction or needle gripper is pivotable around an axis between a pick-up position for picking up an edge of the flexible semi-finished product and a transfer position for transferring the edge of the flexible semi-finished product to the clamping gripper. Furthermore, a corresponding method is described.
Claims10
A gripper arrangement for lifting a limp semi-finished product from a support, wherein the gripper arrangement comprises:
- a limp semi-finished product lying on a support and at least one pair of grippers with a suction or needle gripper and with at least one clamping gripper,
- wherein the suction or needle gripper is pivotable about an axis between a pick-up position for picking up an edge of the limp semi-finished product and a transfer position for transferring the edge of the limp semi-finished product to the clamping gripper,
- the gripper arrangement having at least one gripper beam along which a plurality of pairs of the grippers are arranged, wherein the gripper beam with the pairs of grippers extends along the edge of the limp semi-finished product,
- wherein the gripper arrangement comprises a first and a second of the gripper beams,
- wherein the first gripper beam engages a first of two opposite edges of the limp semi-finished product, and wherein the second gripper beam engages the second of the opposite edges,
- wherein a distance of the gripper beams from one another is adjustable, wherein the gripper beams assume a first distance from one another when the suction or needle grippers are in the pick-up position,
- and wherein the gripper beams have a second distance which is greater than the first distance when the limp semi-finished product is held by the clamping grippers.
A method for lifting a limp semi-finished product from a support, comprising the steps:
- Providing a limp semi-finished product arranged on a support and a gripper arrangement comprising at least one pair of grippers with at least one suction or needle gripper and at least one clamping gripper;
- Picking up an edge of the limp semi-finished product arranged on the support with the at least one suction or needle gripper in a pick-up position of the suction or needle gripper;
- Pivoting the at least one suction or needle gripper from the pick-up position into a transfer position, the edge being lifted off the support;
- Transferring the edge of the limp semi-finished product to the at least one clamping gripper and holding the edge of the limp semi-finished product with the at least one clamping gripper, and
- Complete lifting of the limp semi-finished product from the support when the edge of the limp semi-finished product is held by the at least one clamping gripper, wherein the lifting of the limp semi-finished product from the support comprises the clamping of the limp semi-finished product, for which purpose the respective edge is lifted at opposite edges of the limp semi-finished product by at least one gripper pair in each case and the distance between opposite gripper pairs is increased.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.