Picking up and placing glass with a manipulator is a high-precision, high-safety application in industrial automation. Due to the fragility, smoothness and possible sharp edges of glass materials, extremely high requirements are placed on the design and control of the robot arm and its end effector (gripper).
In the process of automated glass picking and placing, the following challenges are mainly faced:
1，Fragility: Glass has poor ability to withstand impact and uneven force, and requires extremely smooth and precise grasping and placement to avoid any vibration, squeezing or impact.
2，Smoothness: The surface is smooth, and traditional mechanical grippers are prone to slipping, requiring special adsorption or friction mechanisms.
3，Weight and size diversity: From small mobile phone screens to large architectural glass curtain walls, the weight and size vary greatly.
4，Surface cleanliness: Any suction cup residue, clamp marks or fingerprints may affect product quality, especially in the fields of display screens, optical glass, etc.
5，Safety: Broken glass will produce sharp fragments, which is dangerous to operators and equipment.
Typical application scenarios:
1.Display manufacturing:Manipulator for loading and unloading, stacking and transferring of mobile phones, tablets, computers and TV screens.
2.Photovoltaic industry: Manipulator for handling, cleaning and assembly of solar panel glass.
3.Architectural glass processing: Manipulator for cutting, edging, tempering and loading and unloading of large glass curtain walls and window glass.
4.Automobile manufacturing: Manipulator for assembly line handling of automobile windshields and side window glass.
5.Home appliance manufacturing: Manipulator for handling and installation of glass panels for home appliances such as refrigerators and ovens.
6.Optical devices: non-destructive handling of precision optical glass and lens blanks.
Main advantages:
1.Extremely high precision and stability: The manipulator can achieve accurate positioning to the millimeter level, ensuring the smooth grasping and placement of glass, greatly reducing the breakage rate.
2.Significantly improve production efficiency: The manipulator can work 24/7 without interruption, with high speed and high repeatability, greatly improving the production rhythm of glass processing and assembly lines.
3.Greatly reduce labor costs and labor intensity: Glass handling is heavy physical labor and there is a risk of scratches. Robots replace manual labor, saving manpower and improving the working environment.
4.Improve safety: Free workers from the dangerous environment of handling sharp and fragile glass, reducing work-related accidents.
Improve product quality: Automated operation reduces fingerprints, scratches and secondary contamination caused by manual contact, ensures the cleanliness of the glass surface, and improves the product qualification rate.
5.Adapt to large-size/heavy glass handling: For large-size or overweight glass that is difficult to handle manually, robots are the only viable automation solution.
6.Production flexibility: By replacing suction cups and adjusting programs, it can adapt to the handling of glass of different sizes and shapes.
Using a manipulator arm to pick up and put down glass is an important part of modern intelligent manufacturing, which will push the glass processing industry to a new stage of higher efficiency, higher quality and higher safety.
Post time: Jul-09-2025