Carbon Fiber Robot End Effector

[bob1388]

Description of problem: I have 12 very high speed pick and place industrial robots, with lightweight carbon fiber arms, but relatively heavy machined plastic end effectors. I have a lot of issues with failing u-joints, etc. because apparently the payload (end effector plus product) is too heavy.
Question: How would I go about replacing the existing plastic end effectors with ones made of carbon fiber material? Can't I take the existing end effectors and make a simple mold? I'm only going to make 14 or so end effectors, so I'm trying to avoid an expensive mold that takes months to fabricate. The end effectors do not require high precision.

 

[plasgears]

Remember that plastic parts don't look identical to metal original designs. The plastic parts want to be near equal thickness throughout with stiffener ribs, etc. Depending on the size of parts, you may want to consider long fiber reinforcement.

 

[bob1388]

The original parts are a machined plastic. It is the weight reduction I am interested in. The product picked and placed with the robots are fairly lightweight, and the end effector actually weighs more than the product.

 

[bradphillips]

Can you mill slots or holes in the existing end effectors with out sacrificing strength and stiffness?

 

[bob1388]

We showed the end effector to a local machine shop. They think they can take a lot of weight off the existing end effector design.

 

[Gunner]

You can purchase carbon fiber plates of various thicknesses from

http://WWW.AmericanMatrixCorp.com.

We can also machine parts to fit your application.