A development of super small ATC/AWC handling BT-05TP shank

Abstract

An automatic tool changer (ATC) and an automatic work changer (AWC) those hande BT-05TP shank which is minimum size of JBS (The Japan Bench Machine Tool Builders Association Standard) were developed for micro-fabrication system. The ATC (or AWC) consists of a turntable as a tool or a work magazine and a robot hand that has four rotary axes and a slide axis. The ATC can hold upto 8 tools, and the AWC can hold upto 20 works. Previously the BT-05TP shanks are set to the shank holder of the turntable where tools or works are fixed by collet chucks, the robot hand picks up the shanks from the holder. The robot hand could hold two shanks at the same time, so it was achieved shank exchanging time of 1.7 seconds that were the fastest level in industry.