Custom Manufacturing and Solutions with Exoskeleton Robot Components

Product Background

Recently, the incidence of cerebrovascular accidents is getting younger. And the number of patients who suffer from movement disorders or mobility problems after treatment. A new therapy robot-assisted rehabilitation has been introduced to better assist patients in post-treatment rehabilitation. Many of these patients have recovered their mobilities very well after undergoing robot-assisted rehabilitation. This has encouraged companies that develop and manufacture robots to keep producing exoskeleton rehabilitation robots.

WayKen, as a professional rapid manufacturer, has assisted six companies with prototyping and manufacturing more than 30 exoskeleton rehabilitation robot projects. These are meaningful projects, which help patients regain hope in their lives by providing professional technology support. Today we will present a case about machined components with unique designs of exoskeleton rehabilitation robots.

Robot Part Structure Analyzing

When analyzing the part’s structure, we concluded that this rehabilitation robot part can be divided into two main structures to machine.

One is the green structure: in order to suit the actual human arm and the aesthetics requirements, the green structure needs to be designed as a multi-curved structure. At the same time, this curved structure is very long and thin. It is prone to deformation due to the vibration of the machining tool.

The second one is the brown structure. It mimics the joint parts of the human arm. According to the complex kinematics of the human body, the joint parts of the robotic arm need to have multiple degrees of freedom to allow the user to better rotate the arm.

In addition, the part’s structure needs to play a good role in transmission. The key to the transmission is to ensure that the structure is accurately assembled with the other components of the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot. To ensure the assembly, the precision hole of φ20 in the middle of the brown structure must be machined accurately.

WayKen Custom Machining Route for Your Project

As we can see above, there are lots of machining limitations of this unregular robot part. As a result, 5-axis machining is required to manufacture different structures in a single clamping. However, it would cause a high cost. At the same time, there still have other limitations that can’t be machined by 5-axis machining.

After analyzing the limitations and difficulties of the machining process, WayKen adopted the 3-axis + 5-axis composite machining solution to process this exoskeleton rehabilitation robot part. Let’s take a look at how WayKen customized machining solutions to optimize costs and ensure part accuracy.

In order to facilitate the clamping and reduce the deformation during the machining process, we decided to use 5-axis machining in one clamping to machine the wavy profile structure (green marked). And the brown transmission structure was machined by 3-axis machining.

Machining Process for the Robotic Part

We divided the machining into 3 machining steps.

3-axis Machining for Roughing

First, we used 3-axis machining to quickly remove excess material. This not only shortened the tool length required for the subsequent 5-axis machining, reducing tool vibration but also created an orange square that can be conveniently used as a clamping position for the 5-axis process.

Optimize Machining Path

Due to the part having a curved structure and thin wall thickness, machining with a 5-axis can cause significant tool vibration, leading to deformation. To prevent this, we need a stable clamping structure. We’ve chosen the orange square structure from the earlier 3-axis roughing step for this purpose. Additionally, we reduced the tool’s cutting speed and optimized the machining path during 5-axis machining to further avoid part deformation.

Ensure a Precision Hole of the Part

In last, we used 3-axis machining to quickly produce the brown transmission structure. The 2D drawing showed that there was a precision hole of φ20mm in the center of this structure, so ensuring the accuracy of this hole is the key in this machining step.

Accurate clamping is crucial for achieving precision holes during 3-axis machining. To address this, we designed a special side-push cylinder fixture. A pin is used to precisely align the part with the fine hole on the red surface, which was machined during the 5-axis processing. This precise mounting on the fixture ensures the accuracy of this hole.

Meticulous Inspection to Ensure Quality

In the previous steps, we have ensured the machining accuracy of fine holes from the machining process. Before delivering all products to our customer, WayKen checked these exoskeleton rehabilitation robot parts, especially some fine holes and important structures with CMM and other measure tools to ensure that they meet the accuracy requirements marked on the 2D drawing.

At the same time, to make sure that all the structures of the shaped structure (the green wavy structure) were machined accurately, we used a 3D contour scanner to scan and inspect the entire contour of the part. As always, the inspection data for all components is up to standards and requirements.

Contact WayKen to Get Start Your Projects

Wayken has a team of professional engineers who are able to optimize machining costs and develop machining solutions for a wide range of parts with high-precision and complex structures. Welcome to contact us with your designs, we will help you to choose the most suitable solution for your CNC machined parts.