Gripper for ISO 4/Class A environment

Abstract: Antibiotics, oncology drugs and other products, mainly for intravenous use, are produced in facilities with very high cleanroom demands. To achieve pharmaceutical class A and ISO 4, the equipment must meet the highest demands of cleanability, sanitation and sterilization. The purpose of this master thesis is to develop a concept of an autonomous gripper to operate together with a robot in a class A environments that would replace humans. Requirements such as wireless communication, internal energy storage as well as gripping force of at least 1000 N per finger are defined. Additional, all materials in contact with the cleanroom must withstand hydrogen peroxide that is used for sterilisation without releasing particles or gases. A full-scale prototype has been manufactured to evaluate the properties of the concept. Several different concepts of grippers have been generated in this paper. A concept with an angular gripper and a bayonet clutch were selected after the concepts were discussed with the costumer and evaluated in an evaluation matrix. The gripper is driven by a stepping motor and has two gears, one planetary gear and one worm gear which together achieves a total ratio of 980:1. The gripper is wireless controlled using a Raspberry Pi which is programmed is CODESYS. Methods such as CAD and FEM has been used in the design of the gripper. The measured mean gripping force of the gripper is 1206 N and the estimated battery life of the gripper in work is 43 minutes. The prototype has the outer dimensions 400∙170∙170 mm and the mass 10.9 kg. This thesis, combined with a number of suggestions for improvements can give the gripper potential for cleanroom classification ISO 4.