Powerful Pneumatic Multi-tooth Gripper Demonstrates Versatility

May 19, 2025

A demonstration of one of Schunk’s universal grippers, the PGN-plus-P with multi-tooth guidance.

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Brennan Burns, an automation engineer at Shunk CoLab in North Carolina, gave Machine Design quick demo of automated machine tending at MD&M West 2025.

He focused on the Schunk Gripper PGN-plus-P to show how progress is being made in automating every aspect of machine tending and loading.

“Oftentimes we use a gripper and a robot to automate the process of loading a vice,” Burns explained. “But let’s say we have a low volume but a high mix of different parts that we’re using. To do that, we would need to change out our gripper and change out our fingers to be able to handle the different geometries of the part. We would also need to change out the jaws on the vice to be able to securely hold that part for the machining forces.”

One could use an automatic tool changer to change out the different grippers, but Schunk has instead designed a way to change out the fingers as well as the vice jaws, Burns said.

The Schunk PGN-plus-P pneumatically driven gripper on display handled piston wedges of different sizes—first small and then large.

“We might run a certain amount of the small piston wedges and then we need to switch to the large,” explained Burns. “To do that, we’re going to use our BSWSR [a jaw quick-change system] and it’s going to mechanically change between the different fingers. The gripper uses two locating pins and a storage rack that compresses the pin on the finger to allow for those locating pins to go in and slide out as it changes out different size fingers.”

The gripper can also change to fingers that are specially designed to change out the jaws, he said. The jaws have pins and ground surfaces that support the repeatability and frequency with which they can be changed.

“By mechanical linear motions, sliding out and up, we can change out the jaws for the different size work pieces,” Burns said.

About the Author

Rehana Begg | Editor-in-Chief, Machine Design

As Machine Design’s content lead, Rehana Begg is tasked with elevating the voice of the design and multi-disciplinary engineer in the face of digital transformation and engineering innovation. Begg has more than 24 years of editorial experience and has spent the past decade in the trenches of industrial manufacturing, focusing on new technologies, manufacturing innovation and business. Her B2B career has taken her from corporate boardrooms to plant floors and underground mining stopes, covering everything from automation & IIoT, robotics, mechanical design and additive manufacturing to plant operations, maintenance, reliability and continuous improvement. Begg holds an MBA, a Master of Journalism degree, and a BA (Hons.) in Political Science. She is committed to lifelong learning and feeds her passion for innovation in publishing, transparent science and clear communication by attending relevant conferences and seminars/workshops.

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