US 5,243,264 AGranted

Tool fastening apparatus for industrial robots

AssigneeSMC Corporation

InventorsSusumu Takada, Masayuki Hosono, Junji Sakashita, Hiroshi Miyachi, Yoshiteru Ueno, Masahito Tanigawa

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Abstract

A tool fastening apparatus for industrial robots comprises a coupling unit attached to the arm of a robot and a coupling unit attached to a tool to be used with the robot. When the two coupling units are joined together, their relative position can be easily and accurately fixed by means of positioning couplings comprising ball rings carrying a set of annularly arranged balls slightly sticking out from the plane of contact between the two coupling units. Accurate positioning is achieved by bringing the balls on the two ball rings into engagement, which, in turn, is achieved by fitting each ball on one ball ring into between two adjoining balls on the other ball ring.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A tool fastening apparatus for industrial robots that fastens an interchangeable tool to an arm of a robot comprising:

a first detachable coupling unit attached to the arm of the robot and a second detachable coupling unit attached to the tool;
and
ball rings constituting positioning couplings which are composed of a set of annularly disposed balls sticking out slightly from the plane of contact between said first and second coupling units;
the two coupling units being properly positioned related to each other by bringing the balls on one ball ring into engagement with the balls on the other ball ring by fitting each ball on one ball ring into between two adjoining balls on the other ball ring so as to maintain an alignment of the first coupling unit with the second coupling unit.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.