Piab Launches New Additions for piGRIP Suction Cups

With this capability to handle faster accelerations and more high speed lifts, machines can run at faster speeds leading to shorter production cycles, and increasing overall productivity.

Dec 20 2011 --- Piab, a leading supplier of industrial vacuum technology, launches a variety of new parts specifically designed for the piGRIP suction cup, the first modular suction cup on the market.

Available in three diameters, the new piGRIP Bag Lip has been developed to handle bags and pouches more efficiently than any other available suction cup on the market. This is clearly an outstanding suction cup for bag handling purposes. The special lip design in combination with the rigid and strong piGRIP bellows/body allows for bag handling speeds and accelerations never seen before in automation equipment for bags. Beside regular plastic bags for dry food (e.g. chips), the new piGRIP Bag Lips have been designed to have an excellent grip on stand-up-pouches filled with liquid or dry/wet food/substances. The lip material is FDA approved.

With this capability to handle faster accelerations and more high speed lifts, machines can run at faster speeds leading to shorter production cycles, and increasing overall productivity. The bag lips perform best at low vacuum levels with small amounts of vacuum flow, thus saving energy on the vacuum pump side.

Reliable functionality can be gained by using Piab's new Flow Restrictors for the piGRIP suction cup. When handling different sized non-leaking parts with a lifting device, sometimes the suction cups can miss the object causing the vacuum pump to work harder to replace leaking air flow or to even drop the part itself. The Flow Restrictor reduces the leakage flow as it has a small bore hole to minimize leakage on open suction cups while still being able to safely and reliably handle the part with those cups still making contact.

Push-on fittings are now available from Piab for the piGRIP suction cup. Easy retrofits of other push-on cups are now a snap.

Being a modular product, the piGRIP suction cup consists of a separate lip, bellows and fitting. The bellows section has an addition of an extra-long bellows with 6 folds, doubling the height of what is currently available. This extra-long stroke allows gripping of parts in narrow deep places where it can perform the job of a more expensive cylinder. The 6-Bellows is available for all piGRIP cup sizes.