Electrostatic grippers for fabric handling

The destacking and assembly of textile fabric garment components is a process found throughout the clothing industry. The paper considers in particular the example of shirt collar assembly, in which three fabric collar panels have to be separated from their respective stacks, inspected for flaws and then placed one on top of the other before being fed into a fusing press which makes the bond between them. There is a split in the ply. It is explained why handling by contact, by air jet separation and by vacuum pick-up are inappropriate. It is then explained how robotic grippers using electrostatic adhesion are used to accomplish the task. Such gripping devices have many potential uses within the textile (and other) industries.<
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