How to Choose the Right Gripper for Your Cobot: A Practical Guide

The cobot gets all the attention, but the gripper does the actual job. Pick the wrong end of arm tool and even the best collaborative robot drops parts, marks surfaces, misses cycle times, or simply refuses to pick up your product. Pick the right one and the integration suddenly gets easy.

This guide walks through how to select a gripper for a Fairino cobot. It starts from your part, works through the main gripper types, and covers the practical details, payload, air supply, cycle time and environment, that decide whether the project succeeds. No jargon, just the questions we ask every customer before we recommend anything.

Start with the part, not the gripper

The most common mistake is picking a gripper first and then trying to make the part fit. Do it the other way around. Before you look at a single product, describe your part:

• Weight, including the heaviest variant you will ever handle.
• Shape and rigidity. Flat, cylindrical, irregular, floppy, fragile?
• Surface. Smooth and airtight, porous, oily, textured, delicate?
• Material. Metal, plastic, cardboard, glass, food, textile?
• Presentation. How does the part arrive: neatly fixtured, in a bin, on a conveyor?
• Where it has to be gripped. Is there a clear, consistent surface to grab every time?
• Variety. One part, or dozens on the same cell?

Those answers point straight at the right gripper family. A flat, airtight sheet asks for vacuum. A heavy machined block wants a solid two finger grip. A mixed bag of shapes may need an adaptive or custom tool.

The main gripper types

Two finger (parallel) electric grippers

The workhorse of cobot automation. Two jaws close on the part, usually with adjustable force and stroke. Electric grippers need no compressed air, give you programmable grip force, and report their status back to the robot.

Best for: machined parts, boxes, cylinders, machine tending, assembly, anything with two parallel surfaces to grip. Watch out for: very fragile or very floppy parts, and parts with no consistent gripping surface.

Vacuum (suction cup) grippers

A cup, or a small array of them, lifts the part by suction. Fast, gentle and cheap per pick. It is the default for flat, smooth, airtight surfaces.

Best for: sheet metal, glass, plastic panels, boxes, bags. Watch out for: porous or heavily textured surfaces, which leak, and the fact that you need reliable air. A digital vacuum sensor is worth the money, so the robot knows it actually holds the part before it moves.

Foam and area vacuum grippers

Instead of individual cups, a foam pad seals against whatever sits underneath. Forgiving about part position, and able to pick several small items at once.

Best for: mixed or irregular flat parts, cardboard, packaging, picking several items in one move. Watch out for: higher air consumption and less holding force on heavy items.

Magnetic grippers

For steel and iron parts a switchable magnet is simple and strong, and it does not care about surface finish or exact positioning.

Best for: steel blanks, stampings, tools. Watch out for: anything non magnetic, and picking a single part cleanly off a stack.

Soft and adaptive grippers

Flexible fingers that wrap around the part. They handle variety and delicate items well, without reprogramming for every product.

Best for: food, fresh produce, odd shapes, fragile goods. Watch out for: lower precision and force than a rigid gripper.

Custom and multi part tooling

Sometimes no catalogue gripper fits. A custom end effector, say a bar that picks four parts at once, or tooling shaped to a specific casting, can transform cycle time. This is where an integrator earns their keep, and it is exactly what our custom tooling service is for.

The gripper eats into your payload

This trips up more projects than anything else. The rated payload has to carry everything at the end of the arm: the gripper, the mounting bracket, cables and valves, and the part.

A quick sum on a 3 kg Fairino FR3:

• Gripper: 0.9 kg
• Mounting adapter and sensor: 0.2 kg
• Part: 1.5 kg
• Total at the flange: 2.6 kg. Fine on an FR3, but there is not much margin left.

Add a second part or a heavier gripper and you are over the limit. That is when you step up to an FR5, FR10 or larger model. Always size the cobot after you know the real end of arm weight, and keep margin for acceleration and off centre loads.

Air or electric?

Pneumatic grippers and vacuum systems are simple and powerful, but they assume clean, reliable compressed air near the cell. Electric grippers drop that dependency, add programmable force and position feedback, and run quieter. They cost a little more up front.

If you already have air everywhere, vacuum and pneumatic tooling is a natural fit. If you do not, or you want fine control and diagnostics, go electric. Plenty of cells end up with both.

More than one part per cycle

If the cell has to pick two different parts, or load and unload a machine in the same move, you have two neat options instead of a slow put down and pick up dance:

• A dual tool adapter that carries two grippers side by side, so the robot removes a finished part with one and loads a raw part with the other, in one approach.
• A quick tool changer that swaps grippers automatically during a program, which is ideal for high mix work.

Both cut cycle time hard. Which one you need comes back to how much variety the cell has to handle.

When you need force sensing

A standard gripper grabs and holds. Some jobs need the robot to feel what it is doing: putting a peg in a hole, seating a connector, sanding or polishing, assembling something delicate. A force torque sensor lets the cobot apply a controlled, consistent force and react to contact. Work that used to need a skilled operator becomes repeatable automation.

If your process involves fitting, finishing, or push until it clicks, budget for force sensing early instead of bolting it on later.

Match the gripper to the environment

Where the cell runs matters as much as what it handles.

• Food, wet or washdown areas. You need food safe materials and IP rated hardware. Fairino cobots have an IP65 option for exactly this.
• Dusty or dirty environments. Sealed grippers and cable protection, so drag chains, keep things running.
• Cleanrooms. Avoid pneumatics that generate particles. Electric grippers are cleaner.

A quick checklist

• Describe the heaviest, most awkward part you have to handle.
• Smooth, airtight surface? Consider vacuum.
• Two solid parallel surfaces? Consider a two finger electric gripper.
• Ferrous metal, position varies? Consider a magnet.
• Fragile, food, or lots of variety? Consider soft, adaptive or custom tooling.
• Add gripper, bracket and part weight, then size the cobot with margin.
• No compressed air? Lean electric.
• Several parts per cycle? Dual tool adapter or tool changer.
• Fitting or finishing? Add a force sensor.
• Wet, food or dusty? Specify IP65 and food safe materials.

Common mistakes

• Ignoring gripper weight when choosing the cobot. The number one cause of "the robot will not lift it".
• Assuming one gripper handles every part. Mixed production usually needs a changer or an adaptive tool.
• Forgetting part presentation. Even a perfect gripper fails if parts arrive in a random pile with no vision.
• Skipping the vacuum sensor. Without feedback the robot cannot tell a dropped part from a good pick.

How we can help

As the official Fairino distributor for Europe, we supply the full range of grippers, vacuum systems, tool changers, force sensors and custom tooling, and we match them to the right cobot for your payload and reach. Not sure where to start? Send us a description of your part and application and we will propose a complete end of arm solution.

Request a quotation or get in touch and tell us about your part. We will help you get the grip right the first time.

Häufig gestellte Fragen

Does the gripper count towards the payload?
Yes. The rated payload has to cover the gripper, the mounting hardware and the part together. Always size the robot on the real end of arm weight.

Do I need compressed air for a cobot gripper?
Only for pneumatic and vacuum tooling. Electric grippers run without air and add programmable force and feedback.

Can one cobot use several grippers?
Yes. With a quick tool changer the cobot swaps them automatically during a program, and a dual tool adapter lets it carry two at once.

Which gripper is best for machine tending?
Usually a solid two finger electric gripper, or a vacuum gripper for flat parts. The right choice depends on the surface and the weight.