MicroGrippers

MicroGrippers™ are currently available with 50, 100, 200 and 300 μm apertures. Please contact us if you would like custom sizes or designs.

MicroGrippers™ provide a new approach to retrieving and mounting samples. They can be used in two different ways. Slide the tip under your sample, and the long thin flexible fingers provide the most delicate support possible. They are ideal for thin plates and other very fragile samples.

Alternatively, push the tip down onto a chunky sample, and the fingers will delicately grip it without damaging it (yes, even for protein and virus crystals), holding it firmly in place. This positive gripping action is unique: all other mounting tools rely on liquid surface tension and adhesion forces to hold a sample in place. Microgrippers allow dry samples to be mounted without the use of adhesives.

Microgrippers™ are ideal for X-ray data collection at and near room temperature. They eliminate the slipping during data collection that occurs when crystals are mounted in X-ray capillaries, and eliminate the need to encase the sample in viscous oils to limit this slipping.

These styles are available in single size boxes of 20 MicroGrippers™ or as an assortment:
A1: 20 pins, 5 each of 50, 100, 200, 300 μm apertures.

MicroGrippers™ are built on 18 mm / SPINE length rods (pins), which are now standard at nearly all synchrotron beam lines in the world. Other pin lengths are also available: (11mm, 19mm, and 25mm)

We strongly recommend using heavy-duty, serrated-tip tweezers to handle MicroGrippers™.

MicroGrippers™ are compatible with all standard X-ray hardware and can be inserted in 0.7 mm mechanical pencils or micromanipulators for easy handling.