An increase in the operation rate of an industrial robot (IR) leads to increased dynamic loads on the article held in the gripper. The limiting operation rate of an IR is often constrained by the capacity of a gripper to safety hold an object. Under conditions of short-time high level pulsed actions the prerequisites for securing an object being manipulated are disturbed. This may cause the loss of the object, its transition to a new equilibrium state (tipping or shifting), return to the original position upon termination, of a pulsed retardation or acceleration action on a high-speed IR. The authors present results of studies concerning the calculation and designing of high-speed IR grippers: conditions responsible for the absence of displacements of the object held in the gripper due to the action of whatever dynamic forces are considered; methods for the evaluation of the holding capacity are suggested when, under the action of short-time high-level pulses, the object shifts from the state of the initial equilibrium yet remains to be held in the gripper; results of dynamic analysis of processes of holding and releasing the object are given. Referring to a plane parallel gripper, application aspects of theoretical studies are outlined.