Production automation is undoubtedly a topic that will come to dominate the industrial upheaval of the coming years. One of the specialists in this particular field is PIAB Vakuum GmbH, a company that makes smart gripping and moving solutions that are used by thousands of end customers and mechanical engineers. Its products can be found in a wide range of sectors such as e-commerce logistics, the food industry, pharmaceuticals, the automotive sector and many other branches of the manufacturing industry. PIAB has set itself the ambitious goal of becoming the global leader in gripping and moving solutions. To achieve its aims, the company is leveraging ongoing technological development in automation and robotics and targeting high-growth industries and regions. PIAB is demonstrating its R+D prowess at HANNOVER MESSE 2020 with the new soft gripping tool piSOFTGRIP.

piSOFTGRIP has been developed specifically for the food industry, as the vacuum-driven soft gripping tool is said to be particularly suitable for lightweight sensitive objects with odd geometries and/or an unusual surface. However, it is at least as good at bin-picking applications, i.e. gripping small objects such as toys. piSOFTGRIP has three gripping fingers and a vacuum cavity, all made in one piece, resulting in a simple and robust product. As it is vacuum-driven, the gripping force can easily be controlled by simply adjusting the vacuum level. Combined with PIAB's end-of-arm vacuum tool piCOBOT, piSOFTGRIP offers a powerful and flexible "plug and play" extension for collaborative robots. As both piCOBOT and piSOFTGRIP come with the "ES" integrated compressed air/energy-saving function, virtually no energy is needed to perform a grip and release.

PIAB Vakuum GmbH (35510 Butzbach, Germany)
Website: https://www.piab.com/