Why Use Joulin Grippers?
Thursday, June 9, 2022 1:47:12 PM America/New_York
Video Transcript:
Aaron Pieratt
Hi, I am Aaron Pieratt. Welcome to the Scott Equipment Company Automation Simplified video series featuring Joulin Vacuum Systems. Today I would like to welcome Business Development Manager Philip Hart from Joulin Vacuum. In the end-of-arm tooling, collaborative robot market, I like to visit Philip and talk about processes, end of arm tooling, product availability, and what he has in the form of “why would we use Joulin products”?
Philip Hart
It looks like we have a lot of variety here. And we do. But there is a reason for that. Different applications are going to call for different types of grippers. To remedy this, Joulin has one gripper named the Flexigrip that can perform multiple functions. You change out the bottom plate and the foams in the frame resulting in a newly configured gripper for your project.
One of the important things about Joulin is our customer service. If you have an application that your customer needs, we will analyze the application together and then I will help you choose the best gripper for the application. And if we cannot find a solution in the standard Joulin line, then we will go with a custom system.
Aaron Pieratt
I think one of the neat things that I try to instill with my customers is the ability to drop a product in your hands, and then you send me a video which I share with my customer and ask, “Hey, what do you think about this?” It is very impressive because I know Joulin has a lab, can quickly set up tests, develop solutions and Joulin can tell myself and the customer if Joulin has a workable solution. I have been able to get responses from Joulin in one day and share the results with my customer. My customers are thrilled with such a quick response from Joulin.
Philip Hart
Awesome. Yes, and that is one thing that we are proud of being able to do. In our lab, we have a large 225 kg robot, which is obviously much larger than a collaborative robot. But you know we have capacity to be able to do testing. So oftentimes we tell the customer, a box is not just a box, a brick is not just a brick, a panel is not just a panel, because there are so many different versions of products. Because of this, we are going want to bring those products in and do the testing in house. When Joulin sells a system, we stand behind our product guarantee it to work, especially if we have done the testing ahead of time. I have seen Mr. Francois Joulin himself bend over backwards and give products away just to make a system work efficiently the way that we designed it to work.
Aaron Pieratt
Philip, explain to us why a foam gripper is better than a silicone cup or a rounded vacuum cup and more specifically, why would I want to look at your products vs a competitor?
Philip Hart
Sure. There are going to be many applications where suction cups are going to be a great solution. The only issue that a suction cup is going to have is on products that are either porous, have rough edges or surfaces on them. And then oftentimes, there are going to be situations where undulations on the product and the vacuum cup cannot get a solid grip on the object. A lot of times we are going see this on a brick. Most bricks aren’t super flat and the surface is typically porous. You are never going to be able to seal on that product and vacuum grippers must have the ability to seal on the product. Joulin’s foam gripper technology overcomes this challenge and provides a unique solution for difficult to handle products.
Aaron Pieratt
Philip, I noticed a lot of different gripper sizes and styles here. When we talk about end of arm tooling or collaborative end of arm tooling, obviously size is important including weight. Tell me about the sizing of Joulin grippers and tell me how your grippers make my robot last and make my robot safe.
Philip Hart
Sure. We have different standard components, we have mini grippers, we have Flexigrip series, and several other solutions. Joulin developed the safe and light line as well, which is, it is an all-foam gripper, it is light to lower your end of arm tooling weight, so that you can maximize the capacity of your collaborative robots.
These grippers are fantastic. They are a little large for picking smaller products. So, let us go with our check valve, Flexigrip, which is going to be a GS-80. So, this is a Joulin GS-80. It has sixteen ports in the foam and the frame has check valves in it. So, the product can be partially covered by this gripper and if the check valves are uncovered, they will close, and you retain all of your vacuum on your product.
Aaron Pieratt
In other words, if I have an uneven surface area and I am not covering that area, or there is nothing to cover, the vacuum itself will seal and continue to pick up the product.
Philip Hart
Correct. Many the grippers that Joulin carries are going to come in a port, a check valve system, a bag handler, which is going to look like this. And we also have some innovative technology, which we will show here in a little bit. This is a foam valve and you cannot even see the ports in that. But we will get into that a little bit later. Just doing some testing on this. What we can do is, this is a brick, obviously, if you can tell there is those holes go all the way through. There isn’t any magic here, other than in the Joulin gripper itself. I can pick the brick up from the side with holes because of the check valves. The check valves are going to close where the holes are. I can then handle the brick with this little 80-millimeter gripper. There is a lot of capacity there. And this gripper was not designed to pick up a brick that weighs this much. I mean, that is a heavy brick,
Aaron Pieratt
I mean, it is not just a brick, it is a porous brick, and it has holes all the way through it. And you just simply picked it up with one of Joulin’s smallest vacuum products. That is awesome. That is great.
Philip Hart
This is the reason vacuum cups are not going to work for all projects. Joulin has grippers in the field that are handling full layers of bricks coming straight out of the oven and massive, massive grippers that are handling the process. In essence, Joulin shrunk this technology for smaller applications.
Joulin was born and bred in the lumber industry 60 years ago. We had to learn how to adapt to not only the climate of the lumber industry itself, but the products that they pick in challenging environments. We had to be able to consume particulates. Most gripper solutions are going to try to capture that with a filter or something to that effect. Joulin does not use filters; we want to we want to pass particulates, dust and all that debris out through the system. Because we have designed our systems this way, they are very, very robust and require minimal maintenance.
Aaron Pieratt
That is awesome. So, I can pass through saw and corrugate dust through the vacuum gripper because it doean’t have any filters and the particulates with pass directly through the gripper.
Philip Hart
That is exactly right. Our larger systems use venturi to generate the vacuum via compressed air. We also have large regenerative blower systems. Then we pass that all through the entire system. We have a lot of systems out in the field, especially in an area where there is a lot of sawdust. Sometimes after a year the gripper will be taken apart to blow the sawdust out of the frame and whatnot, but that is exceedingly rare and oftentimes, we can alleviate that stress as well just by capturing it in a Solberg style filter between the blower and the gripper.
Aaron Pieratt
Okay, so you are showing off. You are in the wood industry. You came and picked up a brick. Yes, but there are lots of other products out there. I have visited Joulin’s office and have seen a lot of food products, I see a lot of chemical industry applications, I see a lot of packaging. What else can you show me?
Philip Hart
This is going to be another unique little item here. And this is going to be something that unless you had a very specific cup arrangement, or cup array, it would be difficult to pick this because there's a lip on the object. And to add to the challenge, the object is porous. So, this is a difficult part to handle with a vacuum cup unless you put two cups right here, and then you wouldn't have a lot of capacity. With that being said, I can have complete coverage or full coverage over that and the check valves are closed where they need to. So we have a lot of capacity here. That thing is just not coming off. No, it is on there. Yes. And the other thing is, if you hold this, I will turn the air off. There is a very quick release. one of the great things about Joulin’s foam solution is it’s ability to comply to this layer and then create the seal on that layer. Regardless of whether it is porous, or whether it has edges or divots. The other thing is that foam when not under vacuum pressure is constantly trying to push the product away. So, you get a very quick release as well. Almost like a blow off effect. Joulin can add that functionality to our grippers as well. All of this has been used with the same gripper and we have not changed anything. This is still the same 80-millimeter gripper.
Aaron Pieratt
So, there is a decent potential that if I was doing packaging, or multiple products, or if I had an application where I am picking something up, dropping something here, moving something there, I might be able to even use the same gripper.
Philip Hart
That is always 100% our goal. One of the great strengths of Joulin is end of line palletizing, building large custom end of line palletizers that handle 8, 10 12 boxes at a time and have 18 zones. What happens is, we're able to pick all of the product, we're able to pick all of their boxes, whether that's five skews of boxes, or whether that's 117 skews of boxes, and we're able to lay those zones out, we're able to palletize, we're able to pick slip sheets and the pallets all with the same system.
So what we've got here is we've got text, and we see this all the time in the plastics industry where something is needed to be indented or made into an illegible writing of some sort that looks like a patent or a part number that that does not allow for any surface area for a suction cup (if you're wanting to use vacuum cups). So, let us just assume that it was all over this, it is not obviously, but I am going to try to handle that product right there. The foam allows us to be able to create a seal in the areas where that indention is or the writing is. So, I will place the gripper here and there is no loss of capacity, because the form is creating that seal around that product.
Aaron Pieratt
So, if a customer has a high/low product, it is uneven, recessed, diagonal, has a brace or support. This is where you are going to reign supreme over a suction cup. You can workaround the voided areas with the check valves to be able to complete a lift with your system.
Philip Hart
That is exactly what it says. So, let us move on to this because this is this is even more important. This is a this is a product that many may be familiar with. It is a composite decking board. The customer came to us because they knew that our system was really the only one that was going be able to handle this. If you look at the texture of the product itself. It has a lot of ridges and valleys that do not allow for any type of silicone cup to adhere to and seal on this product. The weight of this, it is a decking board meaning it is heavy.
Aaron Pieratt
A lot of these have concrete particulates in it, I believe. And I can see that the manufacturer added grains in the material resulting in voids back and forth as if this was an oak tree.
Philip Hart
Exactly. But we can take the exact same gripper we have been using, we will just place it on there, turn it, turn it back on.
No issues.
Aaron Pieratt
So, what you keep showing me from the brick, to the mount, to the board, to even the cups, you can pick up different types of products with one gripper.
Philip Hart
Exactly. And that is the one thing that I think is the most important for customers; is being able to get the most out of what you are purchasing.
Aaron Pieratt
Well, Phil, thanks for the great demonstrations. I appreciate all of them. And for those of you out there that have an application that you would like to discuss with us and Joulin, please give us a call. We can get together with Philip and show you the Joulin difference. Thanks, Philip. I really appreciate you coming.
Philip Hart
Thanks, Aaron. Thanks for having me.
