ROBOTICS
made from materials such as silicone are well-suited for handling delicate products such as biscuits and chocolates. “Many gentle vacuum-based grippers are also available today,” said Samantha. “They can adapt to different item shapes, which can help reduce tooling changeovers between SKUs.”
Pneumatic gripper A good example of this is the HPSX Universal Adaptive Gripper, a pneumatic soft gripper recently introduced by Festo, designed to improve speed, hygiene and flexibility in demanding food applications. Combining a robust design, food-safe materials and adaptive silicone fingers, the gripper is said to offer gentle product handling on automated production lines. The gripper can withstand acceleration
forces of up to 15G while handling loads of up to 0.5kg. The gripper fingers are made from a soft, silicone-based material specifically chosen for its controlled flexibility. It is able to conform to delicate, irregularly shaped or hygienically sensitive products without damaging them. To meet hygiene requirements, it features a corrosion-resistant, sanitary design that is easy to clean and maintain. It has an IP69k high-pressure washdown rating and is built to withstand aggressive cleaning processes.
MANY GENTLE VACUUM-
BASED GRIPPERS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE TODAY. THEY
CAN ADAPT TO DIFFERENT ITEM SHAPES, WHICH CAN HELP REDUCE TOOLING
CHANGEOVERS BETWEEN SKUS
irregular shapes or surfaces. Its one-piece, sealed design with three gripping fingers is robust, dust-insensitive, and allows easy adjustment of gripping force via the vacuum level - ensuring gentle and reliable handling across a wider range of applications. The device is made from detectable
silicone approved for direct food contact, in compliance with FDA 21 CFR and EU 1935/2004 regulations. Designed for the food and chocolate industry, it enables automated handling of delicate food items and chocolate pralines without the risk of crushing, deformation, or damaged toppings. With a sealed vacuum cavity and optional wash-down fitting, the end-effector is also easy to clean making it suitable for use in hygienic production environments where reliability and cleanliness are critical. Perhaps the most important robot
Gentle gripper Piab has also recently expanded the piSOFTGRIP family with the new 3-finger piSOFTGRIP 40-3, developed for the food and chocolate industry. Based on the piSOFTGRIP 30-3, the new model is said to offer increased gripping capacity up to Ø40 mm while keeping the same concept and ease of use. The vacuum-based soft gripper can handle sensitive, lightweight products with
trend is the convergence of modern technologies. Rather than relying on a single breakthrough, today it is possible to combine soft grippers, AI vision, force sensing and adaptive software to create robotic systems that can effectively ‘see, feel and learn’. This has enabled products that were once considered too delicate or fragile, to be handled gently and flexibly by robots.
22 • KENNEDY’S CONFECTION • JULY 2026
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