Manipulator

A manipulator is a hand-guided handling device: the machine carries the weight, the person determines the movement. Its hallmark is the rigid kinematics between suspension and load – an arm or an axis rather than a rope. It therefore absorbs not only the weight but also lateral forces and moments, for example from a load gripped off-centre.

A manipulator is not a robot. It has no program and follows no path on its own; every movement originates in the operator’s hand. In the standards such equipment is covered by EN 14238 as manually controlled load manipulating devices. As machinery under the EU Machinery Directive it carries a CE marking.

A drive – usually a pneumatic cylinder, increasingly an electric drive – generates a force opposing the weight of the load. Either the balance is preset for a known load and switched between “loaded” and “unloaded”, or the device senses the weight itself after gripping. In the third variant the operator controls lifting and lowering sensitively through the handle.

What is balanced is the weight, not the mass. A heavy load can be held with little force but still has to be accelerated and decelerated. That is why a large manipulator feels more sluggish than a small one, and why with heavy parts a calm movement counts for more than a fast one.

The types differ in how the load is guided and how the device stands in the room.

A manipulator rarely fails on load capacity. What governs is the moment of load times outreach, which passes into the building at the base or the suspension – floor, anchors or roof structure have to take it. The gripper always counts towards the load.

The working area ends at the reach of the arm; serving several stations calls for a rail system. And the gripper decides acceptance: if picking up takes longer than lifting by hand, the device is left standing. For pure transport over long distances a crane is the better tool, for fully uniform high-cadence sequences automation.