pneumatic gripper vs. hydraulic gripper

Pneumatic and hydraulic grippers are amongst the most well-liked gripper sorts (together with servo-electric). For those who’re questioning whether or not pneumatic or hydraulic grippers are prone to be the perfect match on your software, this text is for you as we evaluate and distinction the design, efficiency and value of hydraulic and pneumatic grippers.

Spoiler: As showdowns go, this one is straightforward to name. We’ll quickly uncover that for collaborative robotic functions, there is no such thing as a critical competitors between the 2: pneumatic grippers are the best selection on your cobot-powered functions.

Let’s discover out why…

What’s a hydraulic gripper? 

Hydraulic grippers are heavy-duty grippers that apply the kind of forces required to deal with heavy (normally >50kg, 110.23 lb) objects.

How does a hydraulic gripper work?

Hydraulic grippers use pressurized fluids to maneuver a piston. When the piston strikes, it transfers this pressure to the claw, opening and shutting it.
What’s a pneumatic gripper? How does a pneumatic gripper work?
Pneumatic grippers use stress from a compressed air provide system to produce the ability required to maneuver an inside piston, thereby opening and shutting the pneumatic gripper fingers (or ‘jaws’). Pneumatic gripper mechanisms comprise no motors or gears, which makes it straightforward to translate the ability of a piston/cylinder system right into a gripping pressure.

Because the majority of producing services have already got entry to compressed air, deploying pneumatic grippers is straightforward and cost-effective. One of many most important advantages of pneumatic grippers is that they supply a excessive quantity of gripping pressure in a small, mild and low-cost package deal. For manufacturing services the place house is at a premium, pneumatic grippers are a cheap and ergonomic selection. They’re additionally fairly straightforward to take care of –after getting your pneumatic gripper working, it could actually present tens of millions of cycles with out requiring upkeep.

What’s the distinction between pneumatic and hydraulic grippers?

One of many main the reason why hydraulic grippers are not often, if ever, utilized in collaborative automation is as a result of the standard payloads do not match. For causes of security, ease of deployment, value, mobility and footprint, cobots are designed for lower-than-hydraulic payloads of as much as round 16kg (35.3 lbs). Subsequently, for nearly each conceivable cobot-powered software, utilizing a hydraulic gripper can be costly overkill.

If you should carry weights of 500kg (1102.31lb), for instance, an ordinary industrial robotic with a hydraulic gripper and fencing could be the only option. However for Common Robots clients, pneumatics supply completely satisfactory vitality density for functions corresponding to meeting, materials dealing with and machine tending.

Moreover, since hydraulic grippers comprise pistons and oiled elements, they’re much higher-maintenance than their servo-electric and pneumatic counterparts. Hydraulic gripper upkeep can also be advanced and may require expert technicians to take care of the oil, pump and reservoir. This highlights one other vital purpose why pneumatic grippers are usually most popular over hydraulic grippers for collaborative functions: cobots are designed for straightforward operation by non-expert end-users, so including a fancy hydraulic gripping system to a cobot will undermine the general system’s ease of use. 

Since they depend on air relatively than fluids, pneumatic robotic grippers might be deployed in clear room environments. By comparability, hydraulic robotic grippers are too messy –particularly after they fail and leak hydraulic fluid into your work cell. 

Moreover, when it comes to value, hydraulic grippers are far more costly than their pneumatic counterparts. In case you are interested in cobots partially due to their low value in comparison with conventional automation, then it would not make lots of sense to deploy a hydraulic gripper that might simply value greater than the cobot itself. 

Lastly, if accuracy is vital to your collaborative software, then needless to say pneumatic gripping programs present better accuracy than their hydraulic counterparts. Your gripper’s URCap software program and straightforward integration with Common Robots cobot vary ensures a continuing movement of information that can be utilized to tweak your functions and processes, scale back downtime and enhance productiveness.

URCaps are particular software program packages designed to make sure easy programming and management of UR licensed end-effectors and parts. UR+ is a worldwide ecosystem of parts, software program, and software kits which have been validated and licensed to be mechanically, electrically and digitally appropriate with cobots from Common Robots. UR+ hosts a big selection of pneumatic grippers from you to select from.

Pneumatic grippers simply win this robotic gripper showdown, however they’ve their very own limitations. For instance, as a result of they depend on pressurized air movement, pressure management just isn’t as exact as that offered by electrical grippers. Offering a fragile grip will also be a problem for pneumatic programs because it’s arduous to manage the gripper at very low pressures. If an exterior air provide is required, this could add additional value to your deployment. And whereas pneumatic grippers are appropriate for a lot of clear room functions, in the event that they fail, they will contaminate the air contained in the work cell. For these causes, some producers favor to make use of electrical grippers for his or her materials dealing with wants.

UR+ is a one-stop-shop for pneumatic robotic grippers

Let’s check out a few of pneumatic robotic gripper choices accessible via UR+

The GRIPKIT-P Collection from Weiss Robotics is a pneumatic gripper and dealing with system for Common Robots. The GRIPKIT-P system incorporates the whole lot finish customers have to arrange materials dealing with, meeting and machine tending duties inside minutes. For those who want excessive dynamics and gripping pressure with compact dimensions, GRIPKIT-P pneumatic grippers (in parallel or centric design) are superb.