3D Printing a Robotic Gripper from Prototype to End Production

It was only recently that an injection moulding customer came to Digital Mechanics AB of Sweden – a company that combines design and engineering experience with rapid prototyping technology to tackle challenging projects – asking them to redesign their robotic gripper. Further to evaluating the project, Digital Mechanics then made the decision to use, yes, you guessed it, 3D printing to manufacture the product.

The robotic gripper was to hold and transfer large parts with diameters anywhere around fifteen to nineteen inches (400 to 500 mm), and was forwarded for product evaluation because, as Digital Mechanics Managing Director Fredrik Finnberg himself says: “Robots were literally tripping over the gripper’s external hoses, slowing production and causing breakdowns.”

Apparently, to eliminate the vacuum hoses from the design, Digital Mechanics re-orientated the gripper arms with internal vacuum channels. This however proved expensive to produce with traditional machining techniques. In the stead of those traditional production methods, Finnberg and team came to the conclusion that an additive fabricationprocess would beeasier and more efficient to produce the required internal vacuum channels.

Finnberg and the team of designers used Stratasys’ Fortus 3D Production System and FDM 3D printing technology for both the prototyping and the manufacturing of this new robotic gripper.Finnberg said: “We decided to test the [Fortus] machine to manufacture the new parts, and we weren’t disappointed.”

The client agreed to test the design with FDM 3D printed parts, and that successful testing would ultimately give them the confidence to use FDM for manufacturing for the production unit itself.

Finnberg said:“We were able to accomplish in days, from start to finish, what would have taken months if we didn’t have themachine. We knew from past projects that the machine was up to the job and would result in an accurate, functioning unit. The successful tests gave our client the confidence to use the [3D printed] units in production…”
We are increasingly witnessing a transfer of the uses of 3D printers away from prototyping to manufacturing final production parts. And, here, the prototype would actually become the end product, as the design process panned out.