Case Study #147: Diesel Engine Cylinder Liners

Problem: Cylinder liners are heavy and difficult to handle manually. Customer required three liners to be picked, emptied and transferred simultaneously. End-effector needs to pick and place liners quickly and easily. Work place environment is dirty and has a wide variance in temperature.

Application: Pick up cylinder liners from a table, move the parts over a hopper in the floor and pitch upward to allow shot blasting material to fall out of the inside of the liners. After emptying material from liners, pitch down and place onto a conveyor.

Solution: A pedestal mounted Simple Air Manipulator® (SAM P-96) with 680 lbs. end-effector/payload capacity and parallel linkage. A mechanical poke end-effector with position adjustable outer forks. A vertically extended pitching end joint to power pitch liners 25° up from horizontal. An operator control station with a T-bar control handle, Ergonomic Twist Grip Metering Valve and a toggle switch for pitching control.