Airpot Corp. now sells GramForce grippers — part of its family of Accurate Force Pneumatic products.
GramForce grippers provide original equipment manufacturers, designers and engineers unprecedented force accuracy with almost no measurable friction and a gentle grip for the most delicate operations. They operate at pressures from 0.02 MPa to 0.7 MPa and offer precise holding pressures as slight as 0.25 N (0.056 pounds) and up to 8.6 N (1.9 pounds). More after the jump.
With synchronous and counterbalanced parallel design that allows unchanging gripping force in any mounting orientation, GramForce grippers are internally driven by two 5.6 mm bore, ultra-low friction pneumatic Airpot actuators, enhanced with Airpel Plus technology. The carriage blocks are mounted on an IKO precision stainless steel rail and provide for easy mounting of the customers’ holding jaws.
“We’ve gone to great lengths in designing the GramForce gripper for exacting applications,” said Tom Lee, Airpot’s vice president of engineering. “Whether the parts you work with are exceedingly fragile, soft, delicate or sensitive, they can now be accurately and safely grasped, held or positioned with this gripper.”
Lee said that GramForce grippers are designed to function in exacting and harsh conditions. They have operating ranges from -20C to 80C or -4F to 176F, require no lubrication and have a useful life of 5 million cycles. The lightweight, compact design yields a total mass of 206 grams and accommodates finger lengths up to 75 mm. Assembled, the gripper is less than 50 mm in height, less than 79 mm in length and just 26 mm in width – approximately half the size of a whiteboard eraser.
“I’m proud of our design team. There’s really a lot that is unique in this gripper and we spent almost two years in development before applying for a patent,” Airpot president, Mark Gaberman said. “The GramForce grippers are ideal for precision assembly equipment, test and measurement devices, robotic end-effectors, small parts handling, and machining operations. We’re confident they will make a notable difference for precision motion control applications.”
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