Development of flexible gripper for precision assembly of cylinder locks

The following project describes the precise assembly of 60 different fine mechanical parts in an extremely close tolerance situation. The whole assembly consists of 80 different parts which all must be handled. This and the fact that the plant must be able to produce lot size 1 is an absolute new challenge for the mechanical and control technical development. The projected plant will be one of the most flexible assembly process Europe-wide! In the PROFACTOR Research and Solutions GmbH business field Mechatronic Automation Systems a unique, high innovative fully automated plant will be developed. This fully automatic assembly machine represents a giant leap in the assembly of cylinder locks. The handling of small, sensitive parts requires grippers and sensors which are able to pre-center them in a very sensitive and exact manner. At Pick&Place and at joining of such small parts there plays the smallest deviation an important role and so there must be found a new, unique and flexible solution to deal with such problems. The following sides mainly describe the development of flexible gripper systems and the sensors for the assembly process.