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Technology that does not merely move a load but brings it into a precisely defined position and holds it there. In hand-guided handling that means low-reaction movement, a limited final speed and an arm that leaves the load standing as soon as the hand releases it.
Lifting a load from the pallet onto the bench is a movement. Placing it into a fixture, threading it onto two pins or bringing it up against a stop is positioning: the load has to arrive at a particular place in a particular orientation and stay there until it is clamped or bolted.
Positioning technology covers everything that makes this possible – on the hand-guided device as well as on the automatic axis.
In manual positioning the person supplies the eye and the feel, the device the calm. Four properties are needed.
Nobody achieves the last tenths of a millimetre by guiding by hand. They come from the fixture: lead-in chamfers, locating pins and stops take over the fine location once the component is roughly pre-positioned. For the component to follow its locating features, the gripper needs some compliance – a floating mount or a compensating element.
On the device itself, parking brakes that lock individual axes help, as do slewing limiters that let the arm come to rest in a repeatable position.
Driven axes with a position measuring system approach a programmed position on their own. Two characteristics describe how well: positioning accuracy states how close the axis comes to the commanded position, repeatability how closely the results cluster when the position is approached repeatedly. For industrial robots both characteristics and their measurement are described in ISO 9283.
In practice repeatability usually matters most: a constant deviation can be corrected once, a scattering one cannot.
Hand-guided positioning fits when parts change, batches are small or joining requires feel. Automatic positioning fits when the same position is approached very often and the parts are presented consistently. In between lie hybrid forms: hand-guided until just before the target, the last stretch through locating features or a driven axis.
What Entracon offers here is on the matching page.
See what we offer| Aid | Where | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Lead-in chamfer, locating pin | Fixture or component | Guides the part into its target position over the last millimetres |
| Stop | Fixture | Defines one direction unambiguously |
| Floating mount | Gripper | Lets the part follow the locating features |
| Parking brake | Joints and axes of the device | Locks one movement while another is carried out |
| Slewing limiter | Arm or jib | Repeatable end position, protection against collision |
That depends less on the device than on the fixture. A rigidly guiding device brings the load calmly close to the target position; the actual accuracy comes from locating features and stops. Blanket figures in millimetres would not be credible.
Positioning accuracy describes the deviation between commanded and attained position. Repeatability describes how much the attained positions scatter when the same command is approached several times.
Because the load hangs on a rope. It swings after every lateral movement and gives way as soon as it touches a stop. For positioning tasks, rigid guidance is the right design.
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