Tube Gripping & Rotating

Published by Lindsay Freeman at June 29, 2023

Do you have a tube or print sleeve that you need assistance picking up and depositing into a location that’s hard to access? Our custom squeeze arms could be just what you’re looking for.

In the example below, we suggested a 20500HS unit with our Squeeze-O-Turn tooling. The end-effector would be used to pick up interrupter tubes that are standing vertically on a pallet and lift and rotate them in order to set down on a table.

Interrupter Tube Specs:

5.25″ diameter
73″ wide
100 lbs maximum weight

Regarding this project, when the operator is in need of product, they take the lifter and manually push it to the storage rack of product located in the staging queue. The operator would position the lifter, while lowering the Squeeze-O-Turn arms, so it is directly over the next available product.

The Squeeze-O-Turn arms would be lowered until they are around the product with the fixed arm aligned touching the product. The operator would then guide the arms to squeeze the product until it is fully gripped. The operator would then raise the tooling to clear the product from the staging area.

At this time, the operator would manually push the product to the offloading location. While pressing the rotate button, the squeeze arms would rotate the product to the desired angle until it is lined up with the drop-off location. The operator would then open the squeeze arms to release the product, rotate the squeeze arms back to the starting position.

Once complete, the operator would pull the lifter back and wheel it to the staging queue for the next load.

Click HERE to see our portable lifter line options, as well as, HERE to find additional details about our Cranes and Manipulators product line.

Lastly, additional Vacuum lifters & Crane system solutions can be found on our newly expanded website HERE.