Jaw pneumatic grippers rely on compressed air for their operation. Upon some command signal, valves allow air to travel through internal channels and activate mechanical linkages — which in turn open and close the gripper fingers. Supporting this primary set of subcomponents are pneumatic hoses, control subcomponents and wiring, mounting flanges for attachment to machines and robots, failsafe mechanisms, and a housing that encloses these components. Though the released position (held by a mechanical compression spring) is usually the default, gripper designs that default to grasping are also available on the market. Where a closed (gripping) position is the default, a spring provides the gripping force … and allowing compressed air into the gripper serves to open the jaws. In fact, certain grippers rely on compressed air for both grasping and releasing force. Figure 2: Parallel, three-finger, and angled grippers are the three most common gripper types in industrial applications. The three-finger pneumatic gripper shown here has fingers offset by 120° to gently stretch O-rings and mount them onto recipient shafts. (Image source: Schunk)
Complemented by the last several decades’ worth of advancement in controls, sensors, and feedback connectivity, pneumatic gripper motions (primarily for grasping and releasing) typically coordinate with those of the machine axis or robotic arm to which they mount.
Pneumatic gripper operation
Pneumatic grippers are far and away the most common gripper type for industrial applications involving robotic pick-and- place, machine tools, workpiece machining, and assembly tasks. Though some pneumatic grippers take the form of bladder-type and suction-cup end effectors, pneumatic grippers with fingers or jaws are the most prevalent and those generally assumed when no other context is given.
Pneumatic grippers are electromechanical devices used in industrial applications for grasping and lifting, holding, rotating, and placing objects into set locations. These grippers typically install on the furthest reaches of either workpiece-processing machines or six-axis, Cartesian, or selective compliance articulated robot arm (SCARA) robotic arms as end effectors to execute various material-handling tasks. Figure 1: Shown here is a two-finger pneumatic gripper on the end of a robotic arm. The jaw fingers make physical contact with the object to be grasped and are what allow the gripper to hold and release objects. (Image source: Kazakov • Getty Images)
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