Maintenance-free grippers from the 3D printer

• What was needed: Gripper for mechanical screwing of lid
• Requirements: Hygienic, use without lubricant, cost-effective, fast availability, low weight
• Industry: Packaging industry for cosmetic products
• Manufacturing process: Filament moulding (FDM)
• Material: iglidur ® i150
• Success for the customer: 85% cost savings for the grippers, as well as 70% faster delivery. In addition, the iglidur® filament used is up to 50 times more wear-resistant compared to standard materials such as polyactide (PLA)

Carecos Kosmetik GmbH was faced with the following problem: trade show was due for a product change, the company had to have new grippers made for its packaging machines, which grip the lids and screw them onto containers. Carecos Kosmetik had previously opted for the complex milling process of an aluminium gripper. This cost up to 10,000 euros per unit and took around six weeks to produce. Too long a waiting time in an industrial sector where, in the dawning Industry 4.0 era, it is increasingly important to be able to produce small batches economically. In the search for a more flexible 3D-printed alternative, filaments had to be found that work reliably even under the influence of constant wear and tear. This is because almost every element of a gripper is movable and slides on surfaces, shafts and pins as it moves.

Due to the high costs and long production time of the metal grippers, Carecos Kosmetik GmbH initially trialled 3D printing of the grippers using standard plastics such as ABS and PLA. However, the printing processes did not deliver satisfactory results. The manufacturer then turned to us and, with the tribologically optimised filament iglidur® i150, found an extremely stable and at the same time very impact-resistant material for 3D printing, with which a gripper can be printed within 10 to 12 hours.
Metallic parts often have to be provided with separate bearing bushes or lubricated in the application. Thanks to the use of iglidur® i150 in 3D printing, the company was able to save up to 85 percent of the costs and 70 percent of the manufacturing time compared to the previously selected aluminium formats. Furthermore, plastic grippers are seven times lighter than metal grippers. In addition to iglidur® i150, igus® offers various other filaments for printing wear-resistant parts in a wide range of application scenarios.Compared to standard materials such as polylactide (PLA), these are up to 50 times more wear-resistant and can be processed on all commercially available 3D printers.