The physical constraints within the sintering furnace tray assembly required a gripper design that fits within the vertical space between each tray and is capable of approaching and retreating from a puck from the side, rather than from overhead, yet also does not collide with the tray walls when fully opened. The furnace trays are composed of a refractory material, and are moderately fragile. Since the vertical actuator drive is non-compliant, it is conceivable that damage to the furnace trays could be incurred by collisions while loading the pucks due to variations in tray height. These variations can be expected to occur as a result of thermal cycling of the trays, variations in dimensions of specific trays at tray changeout, and variations in tray assembly position due to backlash in the sintering furnace tray loading mechanism. Being Installed in Furnace Glovebox Cable management has proven a challenging aspect of implementing the puck handling system.
Additional cables are necessary for connecting limit switches.
Pneumatic lines also must be routed through the axes to reach the end effector. These all combine to create an imposing assembly that must comply with the system s range of motion. A satisfactory cable management design has been developed for the puck handler, but at significant effort. Commercial servomotors are now available with a built-in controller and amplifier. The puck will be weighed using a commercial balance with an RS-232 serial communications port for control and data collection.