A8 / EFFECTOR
Challenge
A pick-and-place cell needed product-specific gripper fingers for a family of delicate parts. Machined aluminum fingers were heavy enough to limit cycle speed and took weeks to revise.
Constraints
- Cycle-rate target required lower end-of-arm mass
- Contact surfaces could not mark the product
- New product variants arrive monthly and need new finger geometry
Engineering approach
Fingers were reengineered for FDM carbon-fiber nylon with compliant TPU contact pads printed as a two-material assembly. A parametric CAD template lets each new variant generate updated fingers that go straight to the print queue.
Results
- End-of-arm mass reduced versus machined aluminum fingers
- Variant turnaround moved from weeks to days
- Damaged fingers replaced from the part library overnight