A Bernoulli grip uses airflow to adhere to an object without physical contact. Such grippers rely on the Bernoulli airflow principle. A high velocity airstream has a low

static pressure In fluid mechanics the term static pressure has several uses: * In the design and operation of aircraft, ''static pressure'' is the air pressure in the aircraft's static pressure system. * In fluid dynamics, many authors use the term ''static pres ...

. With careful design the pressure in the high velocity airstream can be lower than atmospheric pressure. This can cause a net force on the object in the direction normal to the side with lower local pressure. A Bernoulli gripper takes advantage of this by maintaining a positive pressure at the gripper face compared to the ambient pressure, while maintaining an air gap between the gripper and the object being held.

Applications

Commercially available Bernoulli grips are commonly used to handle rigid sheet like material such as silicon wafers in

circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich struc ...

manufacturing, or

photovoltaic cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.

components. Since the grip is contactless, this form of gripping lends itself to handling sterile material to prevent chemical and/or biological

contamination Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination ...

. Research has been done into using Bernoulli grippers to transport sample sheet foodstuffs in a food processing context, although this work found difficulties as the flexible foods would

vibrate Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic function, periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum ...

against the gripper, deforming and alternately blocking the gripper or and being blown away from the airway. The Bernoulli grip is also being investigated as a non-contact adhesion mechanism for wall climbing robots.

References

{{reflist, 2 Aerodynamics Fluid dynamics