I suggested a UR5e pilot to unload one spacer fixture. My colleague heard an unattended evening shift. The supplier heard a chance to quote a complete cell. I seem to have lost control of my own suggestion.
We run several spacer lengths. The shortest one needs a finger hooked behind it during manual removal, which I had rather conveniently left out of my sketch. I can design fixtures, but I have not bought a robot cell before. What would you insist on proving in a small trial before this becomes an order?
I'd spend the first money on the release problem. No arm brand fixes a spacer that needs teasing out, and a loose spacer on a demo table won't tell you much about yours.
Maybe, but don't redesign the fixture before anyone watches that removal. We had a sample rack blamed for sticking and it was the way people loaded it. Paid for a nicer rack, kept the same problem.
I would trial two lengths, not the entire family. Choose the difficult short one and a common production size, with a clear decision about what successful results allow you to buy.
Our handover once said changeover was tool-free. True, if you could reach the knob behind the nest. Half the shift couldn't get a decent grip on it. Let more than the designer try your proposed fixture changes.
We've agreed two lengths and an attended trial. Setter says the short spacer sometimes tilts on removal; I've asked the supplier to look at that with us before proposing fingers. Recovery and changeover now have their own lines in the trial scope. Thanks, Ravi, that was the missing conversation.
Henry, I'd still want a fixture option priced beside the finger option. Not asking you to buy it now. Just don't let the trial quietly turn into a contest to preserve your first sketch.