System Overview

A screwdriving system is built from four parts.

The robot, the Spin Bridge, the tool and the Spin Dashboard, and what passes between them

The robot moves the tool; the Spin Bridge drives the screw.

  • Robot — moves the tool to the screw and starts a screw program. It does no screwdriving of its own.

  • Tool — turns the screw, and measures torque, angle and depth while it turns.

  • Spin Bridge — powers and controls the tool, runs the screw program and stores the result. It is the part the robot talks to.

  • Spin Dashboard — the web interface of the Spin Bridge, where screw programs are written and results are inspected.

That split decides where to look when something is wrong: a screw tightened to the wrong torque is a screw program question, answered in the Spin Dashboard; a tool that arrives at the wrong place is a robot program question.

The Tool

The tool seen from the front, with the three connectors on top, the LED strip and the front button numbered

  1. Communication cable connector — everything the Spin Bridge and the tool say to each other.

  2. Power cable connector — the motor supply from the Spin Bridge.

  3. Vacuum connector — on SDV tools only. The tool does not generate vacuum; it is supplied externally.

  4. LED strip — shows what the tool is doing.

  5. Front button — triggers whatever action it has been mapped to.

The tool seen from the back, with the Spin Mount, the freedrive button, the safety shield and the bit numbered

  1. Spin Mount — holds the tool on the robot flange. It stays on the robot; the tool twists in and out of it by hand.

  2. Freedrive button — for guiding the robot by hand while teaching a position.

  3. Safety shield — covers the bit and the screw, and retracts as the screw goes in.

  4. Bit and bit collar — the bit turns the screw; the collar around it holds the screw while the robot carries it.

The tool rests on a linear rail. A force pushing it upward displaces it, and the safety sensor then stops the robot and disables the tool.

The Spin Bridge

The front panel of the Spin Bridge, with the terminals, the tool connectors, the ethernet ports, the USB ports and the status LEDs numbered

  1. Digital outputs — eight, numbered 1 to 8.

  2. Digital inputs — eight, numbered 1 to 8.

  3. Safety connector — carries the tool’s safety signal to the robot or PLC.

  4. Tool power cable connector — marked Power.

  5. Tool communication cable connector — marked Comm.

  6. USB port

  7. Factory reset button

  8. 1 Ext. network — the ethernet port the Spin Dashboard is reached on.

  9. 2 Robot — the ethernet port for the robot.

  10. USB micro port — for service use only.

  11. Status LEDs — Power, Tool and Robot.

The rear panel of the Spin Bridge, with the antenna and the AC connector numbered

  1. Wi-Fi antenna

  2. AC connector and ON/OFF switch

The digital I/O both controls the tool without a plugin and reports its state.

SD vs SDV Series

Four models cover the torque range: SD35, SD50, SD70 and SD120. They differ in torque and speed, not in how they are set up or programmed.

Screws are picked up magnetically as standard, with a magnetic bit collar. An SDV tool is the same tool with the vacuum option: a vacuum port, and a vacuum bit collar and mouthpiece that hold the screw by suction instead. Vacuum pickup is what non-magnetic screws — stainless steel, brass, plastic — require. The tool does not generate vacuum; it is supplied externally.