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US-20260124741-A1 - Industrial Robot Comprising Adapter for Mounting, and System

US20260124741A1US 20260124741 A1US20260124741 A1US 20260124741A1US-20260124741-A1

Abstract

An industrial robot comprising a base member including a base interface and a plurality of base holes for receiving bolts passing through a support structure in a first direction to secure the base member such that the base interface mates with the support structure; and an adapter for optional use to change a manner of mounting the industrial robot, the adapter including a first adapter interface, a second adapter interface, a plurality of first through holes for receiving bolts to secure the adapter to the base member such that the first adapter interface mates with the base interface, and a plurality of second through holes for receiving bolts passing therethrough and into the support structure in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, to secure the adapter such that the second adapter interface mates with the support structure.

Inventors

  • Tomas Botold
  • Jiangwei HUANG

Assignees

  • ABB SCHWEIZ AG

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20260102

Claims (14)

  1. 1 . An industrial robot, comprising: a base member including a base interface and a plurality of base holes for receiving bolts passing through a support structure in a first direction to secure the base member to the support structure such that the base interface mates with the support structure; wherein the industrial robot further comprises an adapter adapted to change a manner of mounting the industrial robot to the support structure, the adapter including a first adapter interface, a second adapter interface, a plurality of first through holes for receiving bolts to secure the adapter to the base member such that the first adapter interface mates with the base interface, and a plurality of second through holes for receiving bolts passing therethrough and into the support structure in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, to secure the adapter to the support structure such that the second adapter interface mates with the support structure.
  2. 2 . The industrial robot according to claim 1 , wherein the base member comprises an exterior base surface enclosing the base holes and including a rounded shape extending in a circumferential direction thereof, and wherein the adapter comprises a second exterior adapter surface enclosing the second through holes and including a rounded shape extending in a circumferential direction thereof.
  3. 3 . The industrial robot according to claim1, further comprising an exterior base seal enclosing the base member and arranged to bridge a gap between base member and the adapter when the first adapter interface mates with the base interface, and arranged to bridge a gap between the base member and the support structure when the base interface mates with the support structure.
  4. 4 . The industrial robot according to claim 3 , wherein the base seal abuts the exterior base surface.
  5. 5 . The industrial robot according to claim 1 , wherein the adapter comprises an exterior adapter seal enclosing the adapter and arranged to bridge a gap between the adapter and the support structure when the second adapter interface mates with the support structure.
  6. 6 . The industrial robot according to claim 3 , wherein the adapter seal abuts the second exterior adapter surface.
  7. 7 . The industrial robot according to claim 1 , wherein the first through holes are aligned with the base holes when the adapter is secured to the base member such that a single bolt can be received in both a first through hole and a base hole.
  8. 8 . The industrial robot according to claim 2 , wherein the adapter comprises a first exterior adapter surface, and wherein the exterior base surface is flush with the first exterior adapter surface when the base interface mates with the first adapter interface.
  9. 9 . The industrial robot according to claim 1 , wherein the adapter is hollow and includes an adapter opening.
  10. 10 . The industrial robot according to claim 9 , wherein the base member comprises a base opening, and wherein the industrial robot further comprises a cover detachably attachable to the base member inside of the base holes to close the base opening.
  11. 11 . The industrial robot according to claim 10 , wherein the cover is movable through the adapter opening when the adapter is secured to the base member.
  12. 12 . The industrial robot according to claim 11 , wherein the industrial robot comprises a line passing through the cover and into an interior region inside the base member.
  13. 13 . The industrial robot according to claim 8 , wherein the adapter comprises a transition surface between the first exterior adapter surface and the second exterior adapter surface, and wherein the transition surface is inclined away from an adapter axis of the adapter such that an angle between a main extension plane and the transition surface is at least three degrees.
  14. 14 . The industrial robot according to claim 1 , further comprising the support structure.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The instant application claims priority to International Patent Application No. PCT/EP2023/069481, filed Jul. 13, 2023, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present disclosure generally relates to industrial robots and, more particularly, to an adapter for use to change a manner of mounting the industrial robot to a support structure. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In some processing environments, it is desirable to maintain a high level of hygiene. Examples of such processing environments include environments where food, beverages or pharmaceuticals are handled by an industrial robot. Any sanitary problems in such processing environment might result in severe consequences. For this reason, comprehensive cleaning of the robot and its surroundings is often performed daily. Typical cleaning procedures include high pressure washing with hot water containing chemical agents, such as strong acidic or alkaline detergents and disinfectants. To improve the hygienic design of an industrial robot, the robot may be mounted bottom up to a support structure, such as a floor, a wall or a ceiling. With a bottom-up mounting it is meant that a plurality of bolts is passed from an outside of the support structure, through the support structure and into a base member of the robot on an inside of the support structure. With such mounting, the support structure can be positioned between the heads of the bolts and the base member. In this way, the bolts are not visible from the inside of the support structure and do therefore also not interrupt any smooth surfaces of the robot. In some applications, bottom-up mounting may not be easily available. The outside of the support structure may for example be difficult or impossible to access. One way to overcome this problem is to reconstruct the support structure to enable bottom-up mounting. This solution is, however, very costly and time-consuming. A further way to overcome this problem is to offer for sale two different variants of base members for the industrial robot, i.e., one base member dedicated to bottom-up mounting and a different base member dedicated to top-down mounting. This solution, however, requires different types of base members to be held in stock and does not enable the robot to be remounted in a different way, i.e., changed from top-down mounting to bottom-up mounting, or vice versa. U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,946 A discloses a robot comprising a substantially cylindrical robot base having a flange at the lower end portion of its outer circumferential surface. The flange is fixed on a floor of a factory or a platform on the floor by bolts or the like. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present disclosure generally describes an improved industrial robot. In an embodiment describes an industrial robot comprising an adapter that can be used in situations where bottom up mounting of a base member to a support structure is not available. The base member can be mounted top down to the support structure using the adapter without having to provide different designs of the base member and while still providing a good hygienic design of the industrial robot. According to a first aspect, there is provided an industrial robot comprising a base member including a base interface and a plurality of base holes for receiving bolts passing through a support structure in a first direction to secure the base member to the support structure such that the base interface mates with the support structure. The industrial robot further comprises an adapter for optional use to change a manner of mounting the industrial robot to the support structure, the adapter including a first adapter interface, a second adapter interface, a plurality of first through holes for receiving bolts to secure the adapter to the base member such that the first adapter interface mates with the base interface, and a plurality of second through holes for receiving bolts passing therethrough and into the support structure in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, to secure the adapter to the support structure such that the second adapter interface mates with the support structure. The industrial robot can thus be mounted to the support structure in a first manner where the base interface mates with the support structure, and in a second manner where the first adapter interface mates with the base interface and the second adapter interface mates with the support structure. The first manner and the second manner are herein referred to as bottom-up mounting and top-down mounting, respectively. The first direction and the second direction may be a distal direction and a proximal direction, respectively, of the industrial robot. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a system comprising an industrial robot including a base member and an adapter in accordance with the