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In almost every project the lifting device is the easier half. Choosing the right design takes minutes – sizing the load attachment takes days, and it decides whether the installation works in service.
Before talking about cups or jaws, another question belongs at the start: does the part have a rim, a hole, a contour you can reach under? Positive locking holds without force, does not fail on pressure loss and is independent of whether the surface is oily, dusty or damp. Where it is possible it is the safe and usually the cheaper route – and it is regularly overlooked because cups and jaws are the more obvious images.
Suction cups are the right choice for large, thin and surface-critical parts: sheets, panels, panes, cartons. They spread the load, leave no pressure marks and need no alignment. Sizing depends on more than area: lip material, surface roughness, oil film, temperature and porosity all affect holding force. Oily sheet and open-pored wood demand a markedly higher safety factor than the data sheet suggests.
Clamping jaws are robust, tolerate positional variation and work where no closed surface exists – on castings, profiles, containers, rolls. The price is surface pressure: every jaw leaves a mark if material and contact area do not suit. The answer is rarely less force but more area and a softer pad. Sizing is against the friction coefficient and every acceleration in the sequence, not against weight alone.
Magnetic grippers are fast, simple and need no access from two sides. But they work only on ferromagnetic materials, and their holding force collapses as soon as an air gap, rust, paint or scale comes between. Permanent magnets are safer than electromagnets because they do not let go on power loss – in return they need a mechanical release that costs force.
It is called: one gripper for everything. When five part families run across one station, the idea of a universal tool with adjustable axes, exchangeable inserts and scales soon appears. The result is expensive, heavy, slow to change over and worse at every single task than a simple tool. Two or three simple grippers with a quick changer are almost always the better answer – even if they look less elegant on the quotation line.
| Design | Suits | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Form mount | rim, hole or contour present | needs defined geometry |
| Vacuum cup | sheet, panel, glass, carton | oil, pores, texture, cut-outs |
| Parallel gripper | casting, profile, container, roll | surface pressure, friction |
| Expanding gripper | sleeves, cores, tubes | permissible internal pressure |
| Magnetic gripper | steel, sheet stacks | ferromagnetic only, air gap |
| Prism cradle | rolls, shafts, cylinders | round sections only |
Yes, if sized for it. Draw oil markedly reduces holding force; we therefore work with an increased safety factor, choose oil-resistant sealing lips and fit a vacuum reservoir. A cup sized for dry sheet fails here – that is the classic mistake.
With the right design, nothing bad: check valve and reservoir hold the load long enough to set it down, and an audible warning reports the pressure drop. On friction-based attachments those three components are not options but preconditions.
That depends on frequency. At one change a shift, five minutes is fine. At several an hour it has to be under a minute and without tools – then a quick-change system and latched adjustments are not luxury but the precondition for the device being used at all.
As a rule yes, if the interface to the device and the capacity reserve suit. That is why we size mounting dimensions, weight and media connections with reserve from the start. A new part in two years is the normal case, not the exception.
The jointed arm for millimetre-precise handling.
View deviceWeightless handling – floating instead of lifting.
View deviceThe whole area covered – in X and Y.
View deviceCAD design in 2D and 3D – from requirements analysis to production-ready drawings.
ViewLoad, reach, cycle time – plus grippers for anything without a catalogue entry.
ViewLifting equipment, manipulators and balancers for industry, medical technology and logistics.
ViewIt is not the payload that decides, it is the moment.
Read the articleThe unit lifts. The gripper decides whether it works.
Read the articleVacuum is the fastest pick-up – as long as the surface plays along.
Read the articleManaging Director, Entracon Planungsgesellschaft mbH
Engineer with a doctorate, specialising in plant engineering, digital design and process automation – from simulation through to commissioning.
A short conversation usually settles more than three quotations. You reach an engineer directly, not a queue.
Start typing – for example “balancer”, “SAP” or “pipe stress”.
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