Video Transcript – Video Inversion Installation Device
Robotics and the development of robots have helped to re-imagine the possibilities of innovation. Robots have worked to make our lives easier, safer, and more efficient. The use of robots impacts several industries including security and defense, healthcare, education, manufacturing, and so much more. Imagine you are an engineer tasked with moving and installing several thousand pound pieces of equipment in a potentially hazardous environment. Even working in a small team to accomplish this can be unsafe and inefficient. Cases like these are remedied by use of industrial robots for smart manufacturing which decrease chances of product failure, streamlines operations, and increases safety.
Companies are now taking advantage of these types of industrial robots for these exact reasons. But you don’t have to look far and wide for such an innovative company. House of Design is a robotics integration company located in Nampa Idaho formed by engineers for engineers for the sake of innovation. House of Design has provided engineering consulting services, robotic systems, and machine vision integrations for industries such as aerospace, precision machine components, medical devices, food products, electronics, and contract manufacturing organizations. House of Design primarily utilizes ABB robots in their manufacturing lines ranging in size, weight, and functionality.
To better perform their daily tasks House of Design solicited the engineers of team invert to develop a robot inversion installation device. The purpose of this project is to develop an installation device that can accommodate the lifting and rotation of ABB robots of various sizes up to 180 degrees for mounting. To do this the team sought to produce a device that followed all OSHA standards, require less than three operators, and support weights between 100 and 1000 pounds.
Throughout the months working on the project the team went through several iterations of design while considering the varying weights sizes and shapes of several ABB robots. Initial designs depicted a large bulky cage assembly requiring robots to be bolted to a mounting plate which would rotate via hydraulics and chains. Following designs were derivative of the initial cage assembly with ideas to create universal detachable mounting plates to fit multiple bolt patterns. It was found however that the universal detachable mounting plates were too limiting in the amount of bolt patterns it could accommodate.
The engineers then went in a completely new direction simplifying the main structure and finding new attachment ports. After dabbling with dampeners, gears, and moving structures the team settled on a design centered around safety, simplicity, and efficiency.
The final completed design consists of a simple truss-like structure attached to a drop cage which will be rotated with worm gear motors on either side. Ring attachment plates are custom made for each robot that connect to an upper section for bolt attachment leaving the base mounting holes open for installation. The robot shown in the diagram here is an ABB IRB 4600 which represents the biggest robot in our range weighing close to one thousand pounds.
Testing of the assembly was broken up into small assemblies of critical areas. After conducting hand calculations and finite element analysis of the system critical areas to test center around the drop cage feet and corresponding bolt holes.
From this analysis we determined three tests. The first test represents torsional forces on the drop cage feet by applying a pulling force to an upward leg folded to the foot while the opposing end of the drop leg is fixed to a solid structure. The second and third tests are done using the same fixture and represents the shearing and torsional forces on the bolt holes between the drop cage feet and the ring attachments as well as the bolts themselves by pulling the pieces in opposite directions.
As these tests are currently being conducted, the team looks forward to presenting our results and answering any questions.