Piab has extended its piSoftgrip family with a new pinch gripper developed for the automation of the food/chocolate industry. The vacuum-based soft gripper can grip sensitive and lightweight oblong objects with odd geometries and/or objects with an unusual surface.

piSoftgrip has two 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. The gripper can easily be put in rows (multiple mode) to support picks of extended objects.

piSoftgrip is made from silicone, which is approved for direct contact with food (in accordance with FDA 21 CFR and EU 1935/2004 regulations). The food detectable gripper enables the food/chocolate industry to extend their automated food handling to include a wider range of products.

Delicate food/chocolate items 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 even in challenging environments.

The soft gripping vacuum tool is as easy to control and install as a suction cup. It can be used for multimode applications, putting several piSoftgrip 50-2 in rows or other grid structures, supporting the picks you want to make. The piSoftgrip 50-2 uses same fittings as Piab’s piGRIP suction cups.

An optional stainless-steel fitting offers wash-down provision to assist cleaning (this gripper has the same interface as the piSoftgrip 50-3). The intuitive and user-friendly design makes piSoftgrip easy to integrate into automated procedures, which helps secure the quality of products and increase overall productivity.

The piSoftgrip 50-2 is a cost-effective solution for sensitive and difficult to grip objects. The gripping force is controlled by simply adjusting the vacuum level. The new soft gripper can grip objects with a width of up to 50mm [1.18-in.].