Apparatus and method for automatically handling hollow cylindrical tools

Abstract

An apparatus and method for automatically handling hollow cylindrical tools, including tools without a reduction in a wall thickness on an inner edge of slitting lines, where the apparatus includes a gripping head that has at least two radially extendible gripping fingers that each form an angle of greater than 90 degrees therebetween and are designed to be movable radially between a rest position and a gripping position in order to engage into the tools in the rest position and to clamp them in a splaying manner in the gripping position, where the gripping fingers each have a device for generating a directed repulsive force in the end region. In a particular embodiment the gripping head includes three gripping fingers. The gripping head may additionally include a vibration device operable to vibrate the fingers for separating an adhered adjacent hollow cylindrical tool.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.