Robotiq has revealed its plans of launching the new Adaptive Gripper and the welding component which will be useful in fixture welding applications at FABTECH 2011.
adaptive gripper
The Adaptive Gripper from Robotiq is the first ever on the market capable of providing the robots used for industrial purposes with hand-like capabilities. Armed with the gripper, the robots will be capable of performing a host of welding tasks with hand like dextrous movement. The gripper is simple in its design and can be used for rugged applications in the welding industry.
The President of Robotiq pointed out that the introduction of the gripper comes just in time when the need for producing high-mix low-volume batches when welders have become a rarity. The gripper is shielded in a glove which is resistant to heat and splatter of the welding mix. When it is attached to a robot arm and connected to the vision system, it is capable of precisely targeting the welding spots in brackets, irregular shapes and also pipes. Once the target spot is fixed it proceeds with the welding. Some of the advantages which are gained by using the gripper are reduction in cost of production, simplicity of welding operation, improved quality of low-volume and high mix welding and flexibility in productions involving mix of models.
Source: http://robotiq.com/en/