| Abstract |
Manufacturing processes performed within an abrasive environment or including abrasive materials may be subject to damage of the tooling involved, shortening the effective life cycle of said tooling. In these cases, the cost-effectiveness of these processes may be increased by replacing the material used for tooling with a 3D-printed polymer. A common type of tooling known as robotic grippers have a variety of applications including product assembly, lab automation, and machine tending, among others. The most common type of material used for robotic grippers is aluminum, and while aluminum possesses significantly greater strength than most polymers, the cost of an aluminum pair of robotic grippers would be substantially more than an identical 3D-printed polymer pair, especially if the grippers are of a complex or otherwise non-standard design. To evaluate the durability of 3D-printed polymer grippers we chose to focus on the process of machine tending, in which the robotic grippers must often handle a raw material. Raw materials are known to possess some degree of surface roughness, which over time may degrade the grippers to the point of non-functionality. 3D-printed polymer grippers were modeled after the standard grippers of a FANUC LR Mate 200iD robotic arm and attached to said robotic arm, then cycled through the process of repeatedly manipulating an abrasive material until failure. By comparing the life cycle of the polymer grippers (in cycles until failure) to that of the aluminum grippers, weighted by the production cost of each, the ratio of cost-effectiveness was able to be determined.
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| Modified Abstract |
Manufacturing processes performed within an abrasive environment may be subject to damage of the tooling involved, shortening the effective life cycle of said tooling. The cost-effectiveness of these processes may be increased by replacing the material used for tooling with a 3D-printed polymer. A common type of tooling known as robotic grippers were selected and made to handle a raw material. Raw materials are known to possess some degree of surface roughness, which over time can degrade the grippers to the point of non-functionality. By comparing the life cycle of 3D-printed polymer grippers (in cycles until failure) to that of standard aluminum grippers, weighted by the production cost of each, the ratio of cost-effectiveness was able to be determined.
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