Design and experimental study of an end effector for robotic drilling

This paper presents the development of a drill end effector for use on industrial robots. The end effector has low weight and high rigidity. The drill end effector is fully programmable and will realize different drilling mode. The real-time force feedback can detect dull or broken bits, drill to breakthrough, and plot thrust force while drilling. Additionally, the end effector can also be equipped with a coolant/lubricant device. Based on the drill end effector, an experimental study on dry drilling of Ti-6Al-4V alloy and 7075-T6 alloy bimetal stacks was performed by using an uncoated cemented carbide drill. The hole quality (hole size, surface roughness) and thrust force were evaluated at various spindle speeds, feed rates, stacking sequence, and clamp force. This study indicates that the spindle speed and feed rate have an effect on the hole quality and thrust force by means of changing the temperature and plastic deformation of cutting zone. The results show that drilling 7075-T6 alloy firstly would be most efficient because of the high hole quality and the low thrust force. It was also found that high clamp force is helpful to improve the hole quality.

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