Design And Realization Of The Clamping Device Of The Robot Used For Loading And Unloading Process Of Vulcanizing Machine

The Industrial robot，also called the manipulator，has been used in many fields.The clamping device is often installed at the end of the robot and contacts directly withthe workpiece. Therefore, the performance of the clamping device is closely related tothe efficiency of industrial robot.Nowadays, the loading and unloading process of vulcanizing Machine is done byworkers in many tie factories in China, which results in very low production efficiencyand higher labor intensity. Based on robot technology, the robot system would be usedto replace the manual operation in this paper to achieve productivityimprovements,low production cost, automatic loading and unloading process,andmeeting the requirement of large-scale social production. Despite the fact that the robottechnology is already mature,it is difficult to carry out the clamping operation becausethe green tire is too soft and the prepared tire is easily embedded in the mould. For thisreason, the development of clamping device at the end of the robot become both anemphasis and difficulty in the realization of automatic loading and unloading operationof vulcanizing machine.The author take into full account the work environment for therobot used for loading and unloading process of vulcanizing machine as well as theprocess requirements related to vulcanization technology before developing a clampingdevice characterized by simple structure, ease of use and employing standardized andmodular fittings as many as possible, so as to attain the goal of automaticvulcanization process, including loading, unloading and machining.The robot clamping device is designed to realize three functions: supporting thegreen tire, pressing the green tire,and taking out the prepared tire. Therefore thecorresponding mechanisms,based on the theory of mechanical design, consist ofinner-supporting mechanism, pressing mechanism and pushing mechanism. Dynamicanalysis is made for each mechanism by means of ADAMS software. The mechanismproves as feasible theoretically by using finite element theory to analyze thedeformation of relevant mechanism with the method of ANSYS software.This paper presents a design and study of inner-supporting mechanism, pressingmechanism and pushing mechanism, mainly containing the determination of overall planof clamping device, the design,modeling and simulation of each mechanism.Finally,field experiment is conducted to check the feasibility of the design.