In many sectors, production is increasingly moving in the direction of "high-mix/low-volume". This is where being able to produce a wide range of variants without any manual set-up work at all, even with the smallest batch sizes, is becoming a great advantage for companies. The BSWS-R jaw quick-change system now makes this possible with its flexible solution. The latest evolutionary stage of the BSWS series enables robots to change their gripper fingers automatically during a process – in under three seconds!

Until now, automated changes have only been possible when replacing the entire gripper. Meanwhile the BSWS-R, can accomplish this task with a minimum of components. The only part that is needed for each gripper finger is a jaw quick-change system base, two adapter pins and a deposit station. The base is screwed into the workpiece-specific gripper finger and the adapter pins are fastened to the base jaw of the gripper. When the base moves into the deposit station, the locking pin is actuated, and the form fit mechanism is unlocked. The robot moves upwards out of the jaw quick-change system. The fingers and base remain in the deposit station. No additional work is required, as the robot performs the change independently. The new design of the system eliminates the need to drill through the finger. Only threaded holes are required. This gives users even more freedom when designing their fingers.

Process reliability through presence monitoring

The BSWS-R is available in nine sizes. In smaller versions up to size 100, the support stations are designed with elastomer bearings. This makes them ideal for use with cobots. For even greater process reliability, an optional inductive proximity switch is available to check whether the finger is in the deposit station. The base is also prepared for the installation of an RFID data carrier for finger coding. In addition to the new BSWS-R, the two manual change systems in the series will remain in place. With the tried-and-tested BSWS, the operator changes the finger using an Allen key, with the BSWS-M, this is done at the touch of a button.