Do you have a grip on your bending?

Grippers are one of the most important parts of automation! Grippers act like fingers, molding to the shape of the part during the bending process. There are hundreds of types of grippers, but here are the four most common types for robots handling parts:

• Vacuum grippers
  • Mainly used because of their flexibility! A Vacuum gripper adjusts to the part you are bending, therefore, it is a go-to for businesses that create multiple parts throughout their production.
• Pneumatic grippers
  • Nicknamed “bang bang” grippers because of the noise they make locking in around a part. Like most grippers, pneumatic grippers operate on compressed air.
• Hydraulic grippers
  • Hydraulic grippers are generally used with hydraulic systems working off cylinders with less surface area. They are the strongest grippers and are best when high levels of force are needed, i.e. large/heavy parts.
• Servo-electric grippers
  • These types of grippers are typically used in industrial work. They offer finer control over gripping forces. Servo Electric grippers give you the opportunity to delicately pick up a part or use a different level of force to pick up and control heavier parts.

All of these grippers serve a different purpose based on the type of material or part size needed. Additionally, these grippers can be customized for a variety of uses through additive manufacturing.  

3D Printing

Mid Atlantic Machinery’s applications engineer, Josh Mayse, integrates collaborative robots with metal fabrication machinery such as press brakes and finishing machines. He is very successful, however, initially he could not find a gripper on the market that was meeting all of his needs. He decided to take matters into his own hands and he is making his own! Through the process of 3D printing, Mayse developed a pneumatic vacuum gripper that is interchangeable for varying part weights and tasks. He currently has patents pending for his developments.

Mayse’s gripper, which printed for around 38 hours, emulates the bend of the operator’s wrist. The curvature of the grippers allows the for multiple bends on a singular part. The ability to vacuum, grip and pinch one part in the bending process proves the versatility of the product.

Contact Us Today

With the robot technologies ability to hold many different programs, cobots are in use on all kinds of machines. The more programs you can create within the “mind” of the cobot, the more parts you can form, deburr, and weld through robotic grippers.

Between the capability of collaborative robots and Mayse’s new gripper technology, the possibilities of automation integration are limitless! Contact us today to learn from our expert himself about automating your business.