In a recent Design World Technology Tuesdays Podcast, I got to chat with Tom Lee, V.P. of engineering at Airpot Corp. Listen here:

The company was originally built around the Airpot dashpot, a component invented by industrialist Arthur Cohen in the 1950s for mechanical switches and relays and textile winders. In the podcast, we ask Lee about Airpot’s latest technologies as well as end-effector applications as a whole.

We also ask Lee about general trends in robotics, gripper, and end-effector applications; the company’s GramForce grippers and how the offering differs from what’s already on the market; and the Airpel Plus technology.

In the podcast, Lee also gives us his general thoughts on the proliferation of actuator and gripping applications — not just for precision assembly tasks, but even for humbler co-robot tasks and the like.

As we detailed a couple months ago when the product was released, GramForce grippers provide original equipment manufacturers, designers and engineers unprecedented force accuracy with almost no measurable friction and a gentle grip for the most delicate operations. They operate at pressures from 0.02 MPa to 0.7 MPa to deliver holding pressures as slight as 0.25 N to 8.6 N (a couple pounds).