Cornerstone Automation Systems and Robotica Inc. created the ABOT™, Automated Box Opening Technology™, a fully programmable carton-opening system capable of removing the top from cartons automatically. ABOT mechanically aligns boxes into position, measures and accurately controls cut location and depth so as not to damage contents while safely cutting boxes at high speeds three to eight times faster than manual operators. A solution was needed to automatically change ABOT cutting blades to maximize productivity and throughput while providing a safer blade-changing method that would greatly reduce the possibility of injury.

ATI Industrial Automation worked with Cornerstone and Robotica to develop a custom robotic Tool Changer that eliminates the need to manually change blades, enabling the ABOT to run without any human intervention. The Tool Changer consists of a Master-side, attached to the end of the ABOT robot arm, and a Tool-side, mounted to the cutting blade. The Master and Tool are attached with a pneumatically-driven locking mechanism. The robot arm moves to a nearby storage rack that contains additional Tool-side cutting blades. The Master-side unlocks from the Tool-side utilizing ATI's patented Fail-Safe Locking Mechanism and automatically changes to another Tool-side cutting blade in the storage rack. The entire blade changing operation takes only seconds allowing ABOT to resume box cutting operations immediately. Jay Dugat of Robotica Inc. says, "From concept to delivery, ATI has provided excellent service and support." 

    
ATI offers a wide selection of Tool Changer models to cover a variety of applications. All ATI Tool Changers feature their patented Fail-Safe Locking Mechanism and No-Touch Locking^TM technology. Key features include: Excellent repeatability, high rigidity, and a lightweight and compact design. With over 20 years of robotic end-effector innovation, ATI’s engineering department, the largest of its kind for a robotic tooling company, is focused on developing cost-effective, state-of-the-art products and solutions.