13 August 2026
Many off the shelf gripper solutions are available, though these can be quite limited in application and demanding or complex requirements would need a bespoke solution.
Our customer required a machine which could coat batches of metal blanks in an air-drying substance, allowing for the machine to be left along to perform repeatable and uniform coating on a cycle. The main challenge for a gripper in this application was that it would be regularly submerged in the chemical dip, and if using the entire contact area, the flow of chemicals would be restricted.
Previously, the substance was applied to the metal blanks manually which required skill/practice, as well as precision which opened room for human error. Not only this, workers would be exposed to the chemical dip which, in turn, meant there was an innate risk.
Our design stage begun with a jug of the chemical substance and basic tests to verify how long the mechanical parts could be submerged before any clogging occurred on the machinery and gripper parts.
After this had been logged, we then moved on to investigate how we could speed up the drying process. We added a heating element into the drying area, this led to multiple additional tests as the gripper would be travelling from wet to dry, and cold to hot repeatedly within a short timeframe.
Our final gripper was built off a powerful SMC gripper (MH-series) and had custom gripper fingers produced too, which allowed correct contact with the metal blanks to hold its weight securely, leading to thorough and accurate repeatability. The points of contact were also slim enough to not interfere with the coating process and withstand the rigors of chemicals and heat.