The How-To’s of Building End-Of-Arm Tooling

An indus­tri­al robot serves lit­tle pur­pose with­out robot­ic end-of-arm-tool­ing (EOAT). EOAT attach­es to the wrist of an indus­tri­al robot (J6 axis for Fanuc robots; T axis for Motoman robots) and pro­vides the con­nec­tion between the robot and the prod­uct. Select­ing and build­ing the cor­rect EOAT is para­mount to the suc­cess of automat­ing the indus­tri­al application.

Step One: The first step is to decide what type of robot end-of-arm-tool­ing would best fit the appli­ca­tion. Grip­pers are often used in mate­r­i­al han­dling appli­ca­tions. Weld­ing torch­es and weld­ing guns are used in arc weld­ing and spot weld­ing appli­ca­tions. Spin­dles attached to the robot’s wrist can drill, cut, or mill mate­r­i­al. There are a mul­ti­tude of options avail­able for automat­ing many types of indus­tri­al applications.

Step Two: Next, the user needs to decide whether the EOAT will be man­u­fac­tured in-house or whether an out­side source will design and man­u­fac­ture it. Build­ing EOAT in-house often saves mon­ey, but exper­tise and qual­i­ty might be sac­ri­ficed in the process. Out­sourc­ing EOAT man­u­fac­tur­ing with an expert or indus­tri­al robot inte­gra­tor can save headaches and pos­si­bly mon­ey if pack­aged with the pur­chase of a robot arm.

Whether the EOAT is man­u­fac­tured in-house or by an expert in robot­ic inte­gra­tion, spec­i­fi­ca­tions of the part being han­dled, weld­ed, or oth­er­wise manip­u­lat­ed need to be addressed. Weight, length, mate­r­i­al, and oth­er fac­tors affect the type, size, and ori­en­ta­tion of the EOAT. These are very impor­tant details in the deci­sion and instal­la­tion of the EOAT.

Robots​.com man­u­fac­tures and includes many robot­ic end-of-arm-tool­ing for many of the indus­tri­al robots we sell. For help choos­ing the right EOAT and indus­tri­al robot arm, con­tact the experts at Robots​.com by con­tact­ing them online or call­ing 877−762−6881.