Challenge
Our customer manufacturers glass bottles and has been using the machine OEM’s ‘takeout’ grippers since the machines were installed. The takeout grippers are used to remove the bottles from the mould. These OEM grippers were expensive and the maintenance required was high, increasing machine downtime and cost of ownership.
Typically the grippers worked well for 3 to 4 months and then started to show signs of wear. Most commonly the wear was to the pins and linkages, resulting in play at the jaws. The play meant that the jaw opening was not consistent and created rejects through bruised finishes where the jaws struck the bottle. Typically by 6 months the reject rate became so great that intervention was required and ultimately overhaul was required at around 6 to 8 months of use.
There were two versions of the grippers in use with the selection depending on the glass ware being produced. Some larger tooling claws required an ‘anti-wink’ version of the gripper to prevent damage to finishes.