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DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF

ELECTROMAGNETIC GRIPPER
A PROJECT REPORT
SUBMITTED BY
M. SYED WAHID ALI
M. AJIMEER SHAN
V. SALAHUDEEN
B.Tech. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
 CONTENTS

S.NO CONTENTS PAGE NO.

1 INTRODUCTION 3

2 AIM 4

3 DETAILED REQUIREMENT IN TERMS OF SITUATION 4

4 MAKING OF ELECTROMAGNET 5

5 CONSTRUCTION 7

6 SAMPLE CALCULATION 9

7 3D & 2D DRAFTING 11

8 ADVANTAGES 25

9 DISADVANTAGES 25

10 KNOWLEDGE GAP TABLE 26

11 BILL OF MATERIALS 27

12 OVERVIEW 28

13 REFERENCE 28

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 INTRODUCTION

MAGNETIC GRIPPER
A Magnetic gripper is an object which can lift/grab & move a
magnetic material/surface from one place to another place.
There are two types of magnetic gripper
• Permanent Magnetic Gripper
• Electromagnetic Gripper

PERMANENT MAGNETIC GRIPPER

A Permanent magnet gripper doesn’t need electricity to operate. A

permanent magnet is always magnetized and thus a special device or
feature is needed to remove the magnetic surface gripped by the
permanent magnetic gripper. mostly ‘push-off pin’ is used to
separate the magnetized material.

ELECTROMAGNETIC GRIPPER
Electromagnetic grippers include a controller unit and a DC power for
handling the materials. This type of gripper is easy to control and
very effective in releasing the part at the end of the operation than
the permanent magnets. If the work part gripped is to be released,
the polarity level is minimized by the controller unit before the
electromagnet is turned off. This process will certainly help
in removing the magnetism on the work parts. As a result, the best
way of releasing the materials is possible in this gripper.

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AIM
The project aims to design and make a magnetic gripper that is able
to lift 1kg of load.

DETAILED REQUIREMENTS IN TERMS OF SPECIFICATIONS

• Should perform the gripping operation.
• Should be compact enough.
• Should be able to energize and de-energize.
The main requirement to make an electromagnetic gripper are
• Iron core
• Copper wire of 24-gauge
• Connecting wires
• DC motor
• Hinges
• Springs
The specifications include
• Should be able to lift 1kg of load.
• Should have a radius of at least 100 mm.

PERCEIVED NEED: The user wants a magnetic gripper that can

take 1kg of load.

CONTRACTUAL NEED: We planned to make an electromagnetic

gripper; because one of the specifications is that it should be
energized and de-energized.

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MAKING OF ELECTROMAGNETS
The soft iron is used as a core because it tends to demagnetize when
the power is switched OFF. The soft iron has low carbon content and
is easily magnetized and demagnetized, used to make the cores of
solenoids.
The hard iron is not used here as it will not be demagnetized once it
is magnetized and thus it is more often called permanent magnets.
Electromagnets are made of soft iron because soft iron has high
susceptibility and low retentivity.
Magnetic susceptibility: It is the magnetic response of a substance in
the presence of an external magnetic field. Magnetic susceptibility is
the ratio of the intensity of magnetization to the magnetic intensity.
It is denoted by X and it can be expressed as
X=I/H
where ‘I’ is the intensity of magnetization and ‘H’ is the magnetic
intensity.
Retentivity: A substance can retain its magnetization even after the
removal of an induced magnetic field.
The soft iron gets easily magnetized due to its high susceptibility and
also loses its magnetism as soon as the induced magnetic field is
removed because of its low retentivity.
The hysteresis loop of soft iron has a small area which suggests that
there is a minimum loss of electromagnetic field energy in the form
of thermal energy. This is a great reason for choosing soft iron for the
making of electromagnets.

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The insulated copper wire is used in making solenoids because if we
use it without insulation current flows in the shortest path (straight
path) and gets short-circuited so that it cannot behave like an
electromagnet. The most efficient and cost-effective metal is copper.
In past decades, aluminium wires are also used as windings as it is
less costly than copper, also it was corrosion resistive and more
flexible, but it is not being used much as it has higher resistivity. The
resistivity of copper is 1.68 x 10^-8 ohm and the resistivity of
Aluminium is 2.65 x 10^-8 ohm. Thus, aluminium’s resistivity is 1.6
times higher than copper’s resistivity. To compensate, aluminium
windings cross-section must have 1.6 times larger and diameter must
be 1.26 times of copper windings to offer the same conductance.
That means aluminium wound coils are larger than an equivalent
copper coil, meaning it requires approximately 1.8 times as much
cross-section as copper to carry an equivalent amount of current. It
is possible to match the power performance of a motor wound with
aluminium to a motor wound with copper. But since aluminium
requires more turns and/or a larger diameter wire, the size of the
motor will go bigger.
Copper is used as it is stronger than aluminium and has a higher
current carrying capacity. Copper wires can be connected and other
metal conductors easily. There is no galvanic corrosion as observed
in all connections.
Silvers wires can also use but it is much more expensive than copper
or aluminium thus copper stands tall.

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CONSTRUCTION:
The electromagnets are placed above the gripping metal which is of
iron material. The spine is at the centre within which all the four-
gripper plate is connected with the help of hinges. The hinges will
help the plate to grip irregularly shaped objects. In this design there
will be four grip plates therefore we have four points of contact to
grip a ferromagnetic object. We have placed a tension spring that
connects the casing and gripping part. The tension spring will bring
back the grip plate to its original (initial) position after it is enlarged
to grip the gripping material.
The end wires of four electromagnets are connected to a DC power
source. To have a good look at the product, the electromagnets are
closed inside a casing.
When the power source is switched ON, the iron core wrapped with
insulated copper wire is magnetised. The four grip plates can be
controlled separately, with four switches. Thus, it will save some
electricity; when we have to lift small objects.
The joining of magnetic and electric forces on a charged item is
called the Lorentz force.
The force of an electromagnet can be identified by writing the
equation
F= (n*I) ^2 * magnetic constant * a / 2*g^2 -(1)
Where, F= force, I= current, g= length of the gap between the
solenoid and a piece of metal, a= area, n= number of turns in the
solenoid, and the magnetic constant= 4π*10^-7.

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To calculate the magnetic force of a solenoid,
F= Q* v * magnetic constant * n * I
where, Q= charge, v= velocity of the charge, n=no. of turns, I=
current, magnetic constant=4π*10^-7.
We assumed that the voltage will be 12V and we are using 24-gauge
copper wire; so that the resistance value is found out depending on
the length of the wire we are using.
With this resistance and voltage, we can easily find out the current
with the formula:
V =I *R
After finding out the current we can now easily find the number of
turns (n) by using the force of the electromagnet formula which is
given above (1).
The magnetic field is stretched out in a form of a bar magnet giving
north and south pole with the flux being proportional to the amount
of current flowing in the coil. The amount of flux available in any
given magnetic circuit is directly proportional to the current flowing
through it and the number of turns of wire within the coil. The
relationship is called Magneto Motive Force (MMF).
MMF= I*n
Where, I = current, n= no. of turns
The wire size, amperage and diameter are found out for winding the
electromagnet. As the wire gauge increases by number the diameter
or the size of the wire decreases, so there two are inversely related.
The gauge number increases the amount of current that it handles is
decreases. For resistance per unit length, as the wire gauge increases
in value, the resistance per unit of length is also increases

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SAMPLE CALCULATION:
By referring to the AWG table, we found that resistance of an
insulated copper wire for 1000m=84.2 Ω
Therefore, R=1.684 Ω for 20m of wire
From this current ‘I’ is calculated
Taking V=12v,
I=12/1.684
I=7.1 A
From Eqn. (1),
15= (n*7.1)^2 * 4π*10^-7 * 0.07065/ 2*(0.01)^2
n^2 = 670.6
n= 25.89
since we have connected four magnetic grippers you can divide the
value of (n, I, F, A) divided by 4, we will get all this value in terms of a
single electromagnet.
Therefore, the magnetomotive force MMF= 7.1 * 25.89
MMF=183.819 AT (ampere turn)

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MATERIAL SELECTION
• Soft iron is used for making the core of electromagnet, because
it can easily magnetize and de-magnetize, when applied to
electricity.
• 24-gauge insulated copper wire is used for windings, because
more the number in gauge, lesser the diameter and higher the
resistance per unit length.
• For casing the Brass material is used because it doesn’t attract
to magnet. Brass is combination of copper and zinc. It is a non-
magnetic material. Thus, the foreign magnetic material will not
attach when the gripper is in operation.
• Steel is used for Hinges and pins, because it is durable.

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3D VIEW:

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EXPLODED VIEW

12
SECTIONAL VIEWS

13
HINGE:

ELECROMAGNET:

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ADVANTAGES

• We can ON and OFF this magnetic gripper, thus it will easily

unload/leave the surface of the magnetic material by switching
OFF the dc motor.
• The electromagnetic material produces a very strong magnetic
field.
• We can control its magnetic field.
• In this gripper, we can increase the magnetic field with either
increase in current with less no. of turns or decreasing the
current with more no. of turns.

DISADVANTAGE

• We cannot lift a non-magnetic material; this is the major

disadvantage in both types of magnetic gripper.
• Wires can cause a disturbance in the aesthetic of the gripper.
• Just a little oil on the surface can reduce the strength of the
end effector.
• It can only be used only with ferromagnetic material.

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 KNOWLEDGE GAP TABLE

SI. CONCEPT CLARITY GAP IMPORTANCE REMARK

NO.

1 Hinge Not clear Stress- Required -

strain of
the hinge.
2 Tension Not clear Very -
Spring important
3 Design Not clear Mechanism Medium -
of the
gripping
part

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 BILL OF MATERIALS

SI.NO. COMPONENT MATERIAL REQUIRED COST PER TOTAL

USED QUANTITY QUANTITY COST

1 Core Soft iron 4 Rs.60/- Rs.30/-

per kg
2 Winding 24-gauge 10 m Rs.15/-per Rs.150/-
Insulated meter
copper wire
3 Hinge Steel 4 Rs.125/- Rs.20/-

4 Casing Brass 1 Rs.300/- per Rs.150/-

kg
5 Pin steel 4 Rs.10/- Rs.40/-

6 Support ring Brass 1 Rs.300/-per Rs.50/-

kg
7 Gripping plate Soft iron 4 Rs.60/-per Rs.30/-
kg
8 Spine Steel

TOTAL COST: Rs.560/-

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OVERVIEW

The general summary of this project is that it will lift any

ferromagnetic materials (iron, cobalt, steel, nickel, manganese etc.)
of any shape. The four plates which are connected with hinges are
activated when we switch ON the gripper and they will grip the
object. There are four points of contact, which will hold the object
firmly, thus there is less chance of the object to be fall/out of contact
with the gripper.
If you want to create a strong electromagnetic gripper, then your
number of turns should be more. The more the number of turns the
stronger the electromagnetic field.

REFERENCE

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys313/lectures/sol/sol_f01_long.html
https://sciencing.com/kinds-do-not-stick-magnets-6832309.html
https://www.quora.com/What-metals-and-gauge-size-make-the-best-
wire-for-a-stronger-electromagnet
physics-12th.blogspot.com physics-12th.blogspot.com
Magnetic Gripper for Robots - Workplace Material Handling &
Safety (workplacepub.com)
https://www.mdpi.com/890296
https://youtu.be/KSYAqQ4xyJI

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