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New flexible, food-grade soft gripper handles tricky pick-and-place jobs

Automation just got easier for food and beverage and other "clean" applications such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals that need to handle items from eggs and fruit to bottles and irregular-shaped containers.

The flexible OnRobot Soft Gripper uses three interchangeable silicon-molded cups in star and four-finger configurations to pick up almost any small object under 2.2 kg (4.85 lb) with a delicate, precise touch. The electric Soft Gripper is food-grade certified (complies with FDA 21 CFR for non-fatty items and EC 1935/2004), and unlike traditional vacuum grippers, it requires no external air supply, so it can reduce both cost and complexity.

"Our new Soft Gripper is challenging existing solutions for picking hard-to-grasp, delicate, and odd-sized items," says Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO of OnRobot. "Unlike proprietary solutions, the Soft Gripper offers seamless integration with most collaborative robots and light industrial robots through our One System Solution."

OnRobot's award-winning One System Solution is a platform that provides a unified mechanical and electrical interface between leading robot arms and any OnRobot end-of-arm tooling (EoAT). The One System Solution was expanded recently to include integration with robots from ABB Robotics and Hanwha Precision Machinery. Now, users of those robots can take advantage of the unified mechanical and electrical interface of any OnRobot product for easier integration and faster ROI.

While the Soft Gripper is ideal for food and beverage applications, it also provides flexible, delicate gripping for manufacturing and packaging.

The OnRobot Soft Gripper standout features are:

• Up to 2.2-kg payload based on shape, softness, and friction of items to be handled;
• Grip dimensions ranging from 11 mm to 118 mm, depending on cup used;
• FDA certification;
• Flexible, interchangeable silicon cups;
• Ideal handling for delicate objects and irregular shapes;
• No need for supplied air; and
• Fast, flexible deployment with seamless integration on all major robot brands.

Learn more at onrobot.com/en/products/soft-gripper.

Source: OnRobot

Published July 2020

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