Piab: Vacuum Grip End Effector

At PACK EXPO, Piab introduced it's piCOBOT®, an end-of-arm (EOAT) vacuum tool designed specifically for the cobot market. Featuring the company's vacuum technology, enabling improved efficiency, productivity and working environments, piCOBOT® offers industry certified plug-and-play extensions to the latest collaborative robots, so called cobots.

Offered as a development kit, piCOBOT® comprises a vacuum pump unit, a gripper unit and two suction cups. The standard kit includes four different sets of suction cup models suitable for a variety of tasks, but customers can also choose freely from the company's range of scution cups for more tailored solutions.

Certified by Universal Robots, piCOBOT® builds on the idea of safe and flexible human-robot workplace interaction, found to be much more productive than either of them working on their own. Soft design lines guarantee that no one is injured if colliding with piCOBOT®. With a piCOBOT® unique URCaps installation, programming time is decreased to a minimum for the customer.

Designed for maximum flexibility and reach, piCOBOT®'s 3.87-5.71" wide and +/-15 degree tiltable gripper arms can be fitted with two suction cups. Alternatively, the gripper can be replaced by a single suction cup mount directly on the piCOBOT® pump unit. For optional single or double object picking, dedicated sense valves ensure safe operation regardless of mode.

While a compact format and low build height of 2.71" allow use in space-restricted areas, the low weight of Piab's system offers a great advantage compared with similar competing systems. The system weighs a mere 18 oz. and the gripper adds another 7.40 oz, and is able to lift objects weighing up to 15.5 lbs.