Piab Vacuum > Toast PIAB’S Pick & Place innovative  Pigrab concept.

The arms (mounted to the body) can be found in 2 variations, one straight and another which has an elbow. The arms are hollow so vacuum is found there when turned on.

At the end of the arms, end-effector fingers which have an M4 male connection will be placed.  Piab has created several end-effector fingers to match certain parts and applications. They're soft-rubber coated end-effector fingers in the shapes of “V”, ball and plate.

Piab pigrips arms are hollow and vacuum is present, additionally it is easy to make use of a small suction cup with male G1/8" as end-effector finger. The G1/8” M4 arm end-plug adapter should not be used, however an embedded flow-restrictor (Ø 0.5 mm) can be used together with the cup, if not, rotation movements will be lost.

On top of the piGRAB body it is easy to pick a male G3/8" fitting or even a 5xNPSF1/8" fitting. The G3/8" male is perfect to be used with aVGS™3010 for vacuum source right at the piGRAB, and also the multi-port fitting is perfect if the centralized vacuum pump is favoured.

The torque and gripping/clamping force could simply be managed by modifying the vacuum level. Higher vacuum level can give more torque and better gripping/clamping force at the fingers. Items like piSAVE enhance and piSAVE on/off (former Vacustat/ES) are great aids to regulate vacuum level.

piGRAB is a vacuum based gripping principle. As it is vacuum based the gripping/clamping force is restricted as to what can be accomplished with ? Pressure of max 0.1 MPa compared to pneumatic grippers that usually have a ? Pressure of 0.6-0.7 MPa. The force/size ratio thus remains dramatically reduced for a piGRAB. So benefits for purchasers there is not a great deal of gripping/clamping force from a small unit.

Nonetheless, there are many additional intriguing advantages to take a look at using this new technology:

The gripping/clamping is going to be tender and forgiving having a torque/force simple to manage and fine-tune by vacuum level:

a. Useful properties when choosing randomly positioned and delicate parts from the bin. Less risk to eliminate or ruin parts throughout the picking process.

b. Benefit when choosing sensitive parts for example champagne glass, fruits like apples etc.

Simple engineering and design for robot or machine tools consisting of both suction cups and grippers. Same energy source and control may be used (vacuum pump).

a. Also simple engineering compared to more intricate pneumatic/mechanical remedies for raising parts like pallets.

Lower cost - when high force or high precision isn't needed and piGRAB are usually an alternative, the total cost for any gripping solution is actually considerably lower with piGRAB versus a pneumatic gripper.

In March 2012 Piab had a workshop with some invited Robot Integrators from USA and Sweden. The point where to examine the concept in an initial phase and in addition request feedback concerning the item and also the possible market. The invited Robot Integrators awarded thumbs up and counselled us to carry on with the development. They were astounded by the revolutionary idea!

At this point they described these particular two applications that had the most opportunities:

Bin picking, Pallet handling (lifting pallets after palletizing/de-palletizing)

For more information on the complete Piab Vacuum range contact us at Electroquip today on 01795473714.