Willie Wonka would have approved

Willy Wonka would have approved

Ian Hodkinson Technical Sales Office Manager

A famous fictional chocolatier once said: “Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.” Care to take a guess at who?

In a real-life chocolate factory, butterscotch might not always be the secret ingredient, but invention created from in-depth research and development, solely focused on delivering solutions within the food and confectionary industry, has certainly defined the latest offering from Piab. Whether you are looking to gently convey delicate ingredients or candy, pick and place luxuriously finished chocolates, or grip soft bags of sweets at the end of a production line, Piab’s range of world leading vacuum equipment products is laced with innovation. Got the soft touch

Adding to the successful piSOFTGRIP® range, Piab’s latest serving sees the introduction of a new smaller size of the renowned soft gripping tool, developed especially with the food and confectionary industry in mind. This new and improved vacuum-based soft gripper has the capabilities to safely grip sensitive and lightweight objects of odd geometries or usual surface types. piSOFTGRIP® features three gripping fingers and a sealed vacuum cavity, combined to form one single piece, resulting in a simple, easy-to-operate, and robust product. piSOFTGRIP® is also not sensitive to dust and the gripping force can be easily adjusted and controlled by the applied vacuum level, gripping objects with a diameter of up to 30mm (1.18”).

A simple, easyto-operate, and robust product

Easy to use, control and clean

This innovative soft gripping vacuum tool is as easy to control and install as a suction cup, and can be used in multimode applications, enabling you to place multiple piSOFTGRIP®’s in a row or other grid structures, supporting the different types of picks that you need to make, all using the same fittings as Piab’s traditional piGRIP® suction cups. An optional stainless-steel fitting is also available, offering washdown provisions to assist with stringent cleaning processes. It’s intuitive and user-friendly design makes piSOFTGRIP® easy to integrate into your automated procedures, where it aids in maintaining the quality of your products and increasing your overall productivity. The food seal of approval

Manufactured from detectable silicone approved for direct contact with food, in accordance with FDA 21 CFR and EU 1935/2004 regulations, the piSFOTGRIP® food-compliant gripper facilitates the food and chocolate industries with the ability to further extend their automated food handling capacity. Delicate food items such as chocolate pralines can now be handled without risk of being spoiled due to crushing, maintaining their integrity. The combination of washdown fitting options and sealed vacuum cavity make the piSOFTGRIP® effortless to clean and highly functional in a wide variety of challenging environments.

Gripping force can be easily adjusted and controlled

Items can now be handled without risk of being spoiled due to crushing

So, we’ll leave you with some food for thought, “if you want to view paradise simply look around and view it. Want to change the world? (or improve your key processes), there’s nothing to it.”