Pneumatic-electric hybrid grippers are the perfect solution for users who wish to update their gripping solutions to Industry 4.0 standard, but also wish to continue to use pneumatics. Such has been the success of Zimmer Group’s existing GPP5000IL and GPD5000IL gripper series that the company has now added a further three new sizes to the range.
The existing parallel series grippers (GPP5000IL), and concentric series grippers (GPD5000IL), have been available to date with three different sizes, 5006IL, 5008IL and 5010IL, with a maximum stroke per gripper jaw of six, eight or ten millimetres respectively. Zimmer has now further enhanced the range with an additional three new sizes, 5013IL, 5016IL and 5025IL, which cover a maximum stroke per jaw of thirteen, sixteen and fifteen millimetres, in that order.
The pneumatic-electric GPP/GPD5000IL hybrid grippers use an integrated pneumatic valve which is controlled via IO-Link. As there is no longer a fixed hose connection between the valve and piston that needs to be filled or emptied for each cycle, the grippers have a short reaction time and are faster than other pneumatic gripper types. A sensor integrated within the gripper determines the position of the gripper jaws to a tolerance of +- 0.05 millimetres.
As a result, not only is process monitoring possible, but workpieces can also be identified based on their diameter. In this way, different diameters are assigned to different workpiece or part numbers, which are then relayed to the control system via IO-Link, allowing a total of 32 workpiece data records to be programmed into the GPP/GPD5000IL grippers. An unlimited number of recipes can also be stored in the PLC, of course, which can be continuously called up as required by the gripper.
The Hybrid Gripper Series offer a number of economic benefits to the user, including the fact that thanks to their connection concept, they only need one air hose and one connection cable, with no additional valve terminal. Furthermore, the integrated valve and control system makes them energy efficient, and additional cost savings come from predictive maintenance, as a result of high levels of efficiency and production availability.
Integrating this range of grippers is simple, only a pneumatic hose and the IO-Link cable need to be connected. Using an IO-Link interface, the unit communicates with the IO-Link master of the superordinate bus node or the PLC. From a mechanical perspective, the hybrid grippers offer the same benefits as the other variants of the 5000 premium series. They are universally applicable, protected against corrosion and offer high gripping forces at large gripper finger lengths. Even in the standard version, they feature IP64 ingress protection allowing the grippers to be used under challenging ambient conditions.
Robust hard-coated guides, with a low friction coefficient, extreme hardness and excellent emergency running properties ensure that the grippers can handle 30 million cycles without maintenance, whilst also enduring adverse working conditions without difficulty.
