New grippers technology by Bedeschi

Thanks to the cross competences developed in different industries applications and its long experience in handling and automation in the heavy clay sector, Bedeschi designed and manufactured a wide set of special grips to be installed on robots for the handling of wet, dry and fired bricks. “The aim is to constantly offer to our customers state of the art solutions, as to solve their main operative problems and improve their plant’s output”, says a spokesperson of Bedeschi.

Challenge accepted by the Bedeschi R&D Department, that can draw on skills and know-how created in more than a century to face it up.

The goal was to design lighter grippers, adaptable to a broader range of anthropomorphic robots while maintaining the mechanical strength and to reduce the abrasion of the spare parts, ensuring maximum gripping elasticity, avoiding deformation and/or breakage of the handled product.

It is important to consider that a weight reduction allows the handling of more material with the same energy consumption, thereby reducing energy waste.

Weight-reduced grippers made of aluminium alloy

As a result, the Padua-based company has recently started a series of modernization measures for stacking, unstacking and packing systems, being awarded the supply of special pneumatic grippers for robots in substitution to the underperforming old ones by the long-established Group Wienerberger.

To meet client needs, the new grippers are manufactured with a particular aluminium alloy to ensure higher performance and weight reduction.

Special application was taken into consideration to guarantee a better material gripping providing each gripping wall with independent hardened stainless-steel blades with special rubbers.

Finally, a special compensation system was delivered to ensure that layers are properly positioned during stack formation on the kiln car.

Gripper with ten fingers

Bedeschi has been awarded another contract for an ambitious project for a different and important facing bricks manufacturer. The goal was to study and supply technological solutions in order to reduce the number of machines installed in the product handling lines, while assuring the aim of reducing maintenance and consumption.

The company installed a product line with two ­automatic setting robots for dried product, each equipped with independent ten finger grippers to ensure fully customized configuration of the machines. Each of these ten fingers is independently controlled by a servo engine making it possible to adjust setting patterns in different configurations. In this way an operator can adjust each single layer. To ease the production line, this particular gripper can be associated with an automatic change device to the robot for semi-automatic storing system.

Five-head gripper

Thanks to all the solutions that Bedeschi can offer, the company was awarded with another project of plant modernization by a different manufacturer. The company replaced the existing setting lines for dried product with two “traditional” five-head grippers with pneumatic and rotating heads.

Research and development marked by environmental protection

Bedeschi R&D Department is constantly working to improve the capability of their systems, focusing on environmental protection, energy efficiency and pollution ­prevention. This area that will become even more important in the industries is where Bedeschi is pushing the upcoming technology development efforts.

In recent years Bedeschi has been working hard to use eco-friendly materials, and this has led the company to develop a complete line for filling bricks with granulated mineral wool, a solution that delivers excellent thermal insulation performance. Another result is the construction of a line to produce a large portion of prefabricated walls that can be transported to the construction site ready to be installed.

These solutions meet very high thermal insulation standards but, above all, guarantee exceptional savings in terms of erection time. “Recently we have also developed highly automatic lines for the handling of different products from bricks and blocks to roof tiles and accessories, all in conformity with Industry 4.0”, says the company’s spokesman.