Applied Robotics Announces New Meat Gripper

Business Wire, Oct 6, 2008

New Meat Gripper Adheres to All Food Production Cleaning Requirements and is Manufactured With Extremely Light Weight Materials Approved by the FDA and USDA

GLENVILLE, N.Y. -- Applied Robotics Inc., a leading global manufacturer of robotic end-of-arm tooling and connectivity solutions, announced today its newest gripper product designed specifically for handling meat and other fresh and frozen food products. The new Meat Gripper is manufactured from extremely light materials approved by the FDA and USDA administrations, adheres to all production cleaning guidelines and allows sanitization to be performed quickly and easily.

"The Meat Gripper has very rapid open and close times and consistently smooth movements making it a natural for use on all currently available high speed robots," said Jim Fitzgerald, vice president of Applied Robotics Inc. "Its design using low weight materials and its ability to handle non-uniform products make it ideal for any industry looking for high speed high performance automation."

The Meat Gripper is Applied Robotics' only pneumatic gripper available specifically designed to handle all types of meat, fish and cheese in various fresh, cooked, frozen and sliced forms. The hygienic wash-down safe gripper features a unique pick up head that enables portions or groups of portions of product to be loaded gently, accurately and quickly into trays, thermoformers or other packaging conveyances. Used in a multiple head operation each head can be programmed to produce a different size or type of pack format. More information and video of the new gripper can be found on the company's website at www.arobotics.com/products/grippers/Pneumatic/heavyduty.aspx.> Applied Robotics Inc., headquartered in Glenville, N.Y., is an ISO-9001 registered, employee-owned company serving the world's automation market. Founded in 1983, Applied Robotics designs and manufactures end-of-arm tooling and connectivity solutions intended to solve complex automation problems and improve efficiencies. Serving a wide spectrum of customers and industries ranging from large Fortune 500 companies to small privately-held businesses, the company's wrist-down solutions can be found in manufacturing, welding, assembly, material removal and material handling applications throughout the United States, Canada, Pacific Rim, Europe, Mexico, South America and Australia. More information can be found on the company's website at www.arobotics.com.

Applied Robotics, the Applied Robotics logo and Smart Gripper are trademarks of Applied Robotics Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective companies.