Jaw assembly

For use with a work arm which moves workpieces from one station to another, a jaw assembly for releasably gripping the workpieces, said jaw assembly comprising a jaw element which is displaced radially of the axis of the jaw assembly to grip and release workpieces, said jaw assembly including a head via which it is adapted to be mounted on the work arm and an actuator for operating the jaw assembly, said jaw assembly having the improvement which comprises said actuator being displacable axially of the jaw assembly to operate the jaw assembly, means mounting the jaw element on the head and operatively coupling the jaw element with the actuator comprising a crank, means pivotally mounting the crank on the head, the crank and its pivotal mounting being arranged and constructed such that axial motion of said actuator causes said crank to pivot about its pivotal mounting and at its point of operative coupling with said jaw element to swing in an arc generally radial of the axis of the jaw assembly to impart generally radial motion to the jaw element for gripping a workpiece, and resilient means cooperable with the crank and the jaw element to maintain the jaw element in substantially the same predetermined orientation for gripping workpieces irrespective of the amount of radial displacement imparted to the jaw element by the crank for gripping a workpiece, and in which said resilient means comprises a pair of flat yieldably resilient strips disposed generally parallel with each other and extending parallel to the axis of the jaw assembly in an unstressed condition, said strips being operable to deform from their unstressed condition of parallelism with the axis of the jaw assembly when the jaw assembly is operated to a position gripping a workpiece.