Gantry System/Robot/Crane - Definition & Industrial Applications

Let’s set the relationship straight between gantry system, gantry crane, and gantry robot, and learn about their industrial applications.

What Is A Gantry System?

Gantry system refers to a motion-centric system designed for multi-axis operation with an overhead bridge. It includes gantry robot and gantry crane.

As a general definition, gantries are simply a frame with moving components that support and move a load. The structure can vary. Sometimes the entire frame can move along rails. In other designs, the rails are attached to the frame and a device moves along them, and in some cases, it’s a combination of both.

What Is Meant By Gantry Crane?

Gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous “full” gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, used for tasks such as lifting automobile engines out of vehicles. They are also called portal cranes, the “portal” being the empty space straddled by the gantry.

What Is A Gantry Robot?

Gantry Robot(robot on gantry) is an automated industrial system that can also be referred to as a Cartesian Robot or Linear Robot. It moves typically in linear paths creating a three dimensional cubic envelope of space it can work within. has a standardized configuration process. These systems can vary and have many combinations of the axes: X, Y, and Z.

In robotics, gantry robots or linear robots, leverage a manipulator to create movement along a horizontal plane. Gantries can provide full x-y-z along a Cartesian plane, moving objects at high speeds and even picking them and placing them. They are usually large systems that perform pick and place applications, but they can also be used in welding and other applications.

Gantry Robot System

A gantry robot system consists of a manipulator mounted onto an overhead system that allows movement across a horizontal plane. It provides the advantage of large work areas and better positioning accuracy. Position accuracy is the ability of the robot to place a part correctly. Gantry robots are easier to program, with respect to motion, because they work with an X, Y, Z coordinate system. Another advantage is that they are less limited by floor space constraints.