Company: Piab

Website: www.piab.com

Equipment Snapshot: Piab's newly released vacuum-based soft gripper will grip sensitive and lightweight objects of odd geometries and/or an unusual surface.

piSOFTGRIP has three gripping fingers and a sealed vacuum cavity, all made in one piece, resulting in a simple and robust product. The product is not sensitive to dust and the gripping force is easily adjusted and controlled by the applied vacuum level.

Food approved: piSOFTGRIP is made in detectable silicone approved for direct contact with food (in accordance with FDA 21 CFR and EU 1935/2004 regulations). The food compliant silicone gripper enables the food/chocolate industry to extend their automated food handling to include a wider range of products. Delicate food items and chocolate pralines can be handled without risk of being spoiled due to crushing. Wash-down fitting options as well as a sealed vacuum cavity make it easy to clean and keep functioning in challenging environments.

Easy to use, control and clean: The soft gripping vacuum tool is as easy to control and install as a suction cup. You can also easily use it in multimode applications, putting several piSOFTGRIP in rows or other grid structures, supporting the picks you want to make. It uses the same fittings as Piab’s piGRIP suction cups. An optional stainless-steel fitting offers wash-down provision to assist cleaning. Its intuitive and user-friendly design makes piSOFTGRIP easy to integrate into automated procedures, where it can help to secure the quality of products and increase overall productivity.

Great gripping solution for small and sensitive objects: The piSOFTGRIP is an excellent and cost-effective solution for sensitive and difficult to grip objects. The gripping force can easily be controlled by simply adjusting the vacuum level. The new soft gripper can grip objects with a diameter of up to 30mm [1.18”].