Pneumatic gripper
A pneumatic gripper is a specific type of pneumatic actuator that typically involves either parallel or angular motion of surfaces, A.K.A. “tooling jaws or fingers” that will grip an object. When combined with other pneumatic, electric, or hydraulic components, the gripper can be used as part of a "pick and place" system that will allow a component to be picked up and placed somewhere else as part of a manufacturing system.
Some grippers act directly on the object they are gripping based on the force of the air pressure supplied to the gripper, while others will use a mechanism such as a gear or toggle to leverage the amount of force applied to the object being gripped. Grippers can also vary in terms of the opening size, the amount of force that can be applied, and the shape of the gripping surfaces—frequently called "tooling jaws or fingers". They can be used to pick up everything from very small items (a transistor or chip for a circuit board, for example) to very large items, such as an engine block for a car. Grippers are frequently added to industrial robots in order to allow the robot to interact with other objects.
Common industrial pneumatic components include:
- pneumatic direct operated solenoid valve
- pneumatic pilot operated solenoid valve
- pneumatic external piloted solenoid valve
- pneumatic manual valve
- pneumatic valve with air pilot actuator
- pneumatic filter
- pneumatic pressure regulator
- pneumatic lubricator
- pneumatic pressure switch
- pneumatic manual OSHA-type lock out and dump valve
- pneumatic solenoid dump valve
- pneumatic rodless cylinder
- pneumatic gripper
- pneumatic rotary actuator
- pneumatic fitting
- pneumatic flow control
- pneumatic quick exhaust valve
- pneumatic pressure booster
- pneumatic polyurethane tubing
- pneumatic quick disconnect