Piab Announces Its Gripper for Automated Handling of Six-Packs

Piab, a manufacturer of gripping, lifting, and moving solutions, announced a new gripper capable of automated handling of six-packs.

The vacuum specialists from Piab reportedly developed a special gripper with rectangular suction cups. The rectangular suction cups take up the cans in three places. In order to prevent the cardboard from being drawn into it due to the large suction surface and leaving marks, the Piab team developed a corresponding load support as part of the suction cups. This prevents the cardboard from being drawn in and getting damaged.

The gripper is manufactured using a 3D printing process and could be easily adapted to different six-pack sizes. The fastest way to do this is via the exchangeable cheeks, which serve to stabilize the six-pack in the gripper during handling.

In addition to Piab’s rectangular suction cups, the gripper reportedly contains powerful COAX® vacuum ejectors. One COAX ejector is integrated decentrally for each square suction cup. This provides additional safety when handling as each ejector works independently of the others. If one ejector fails due to contamination, the six-pack will continue to be held reliably by the other two. The gripper has an automatic blow-off pulse to enable the six-pack to be put down quickly.

For more information, visit https://www.piab.com.