Patent GB-1409463-A (GB)
Title: Handling apparatus
IPC: B25J9/18
Filed: 1973-04-25
Abstract: 1409463 Article handling apparatus KELLER & KNAPPICH AUGSBURG ZWEIGNIEDERLASSUNG DER INDUSTRIE-WERKE KARLSRUHE AUGSBURG AG 25 April 1973 [31 May 1972] 19716/73 Heading B8H [Also in Division F2] Article handling apparatus comprises a hand or gripper located at the end of a first arm member 20 which is pivotally connected by an elbow joint III-III to a pair of parallel second arm members 15 which are rotatable about a horizontal axis II-II relative to a swivel base 4 which in turn is rotatable about a vertical axis I-I, the arm member 20 being further connected to the arm members 15 by means of a link 17, one end of which is pivotal about a horizontal support shaft 21 which is mounted on the arm members 15, Fig. 2, while its other end has a sliding block 19 which is slidable on a tube 35 forming part of the arm member 20, Fig. 4. The link 17 can be rotated to and held in any angular position by means of an electric motor 18 which is connected to the shaft 21 by a pair of belts 18<SP>1</SP>, 18<SP>11</SP> and a reduction gear of the type shown in Fig. 6 (not shown). The said reduction gear consists of an elliptical disc (8) on which is mounted a ball ring (9) and a resilient steel bush (10) provided with external teeth, the teeth in the region of the ends of the larger elliptical axis of the disc being in constant engagement with the internal teeth of a rigid steel ring (12), the externally toothed steel bush being mounted on a bush 1711 secured to one of the arm members 15, while the internally toothed ring is fastened to a hollow shaft 17<SP>1</SP> of the link 17. The arm members 15 are rotated about the axis II-II by an electric motor 16 and a reduction gear of the type described above, while the swivel base 4 is rotated about the axis I-I by an electric motor 5 which is coupled by a belt 6 to a shaft 7 to whose lower end the elliptical disc 8 of the reduction gear is secured, the ring 12 being mounted on a fixed frame 1 of the apparatus. The hand or gripper is shown in detail in Fig. 4 and consists of a wrist member 39 which is adapted to be swivelled about an axle line IV-IV, a first hand member 49 mounted on the wrist member 39 for pivotal movement about a line V-V, and a second hand member 59 which is rotatable about the line VI-VI. The movement of the wrist member 39 is effected by means of an electric motor 24 which drives a belt pulley 30 and, by means of co-operating bevel gears 32, 33, the tube 35 is swivelled about its axis. The first hand member 49 is rotated about the line V-V by means of an electric motor 23 which drives a belt 23<SP>11</SP> and thus bevel gears 42, 43, the latter being mounted on a hollow shaft 45 whose rotation causes the rotation of co-operating bevel gears 46, 47, the hollow support shaft 48 of the bevel gear 47 extending coaxially with the axle line V-V of the said first hand member 49. Rotation of the second hand member 59 is by means of an electric motor 22 which, through a belt 22<SP>11</SP>, drives a pulley 50 and thus bevel gears 52, 53 and a hollow shaft 55 on which the bevel gear 53 is mounted, the rotation of the shaft 55 causing the rotation of co-operating pairs of bevel gears 56, 57 and 60, 61, the bevel gear 61 being connected to the second hand member 59. The apparatus may be program-controlled, the program required for operating the device being stored in a central control unit which imparts the control commands to the electric motors to produce the required manipulation.