fluid that is substantially incompressible within a flexible polymer membrane to create a small flexible cushion in use as loading is applied to the gripper plate 100 it will tend to force the fluid into the slots 230 of the block body 200 thereby allowing the gripper plate 100 to flex or move slightly in any direction relative to the block body 200 as noted earlier small movements of the gripper plate 100 permit the gripper block 10 to engage elongated objects such as coiled tubing and to adapt to changes in the diameter without damaging the elongated object as it is handled in this particular embodiment the gripper plate 100 essentially floats atop the encapsulated fluid cushion of the flex layer 250 and is allowed to rock slightly forward backward or side to side relative to the block body 200 to which it is attached referring now to fig4 6 a gripper block 20 similar to that shown in fig1 3 has been modified for use in an alternative gripper block design the gripper plate 300 has a generally v shaped channel 310 when viewed along the longitudinal axis and has a gripping portion 320 further comprising a pair of opposed gripping surfaces 330 along its top surface the pair of opposed gripping surfaces 330 are provided with a number of ridges 340 formed by alternating crests and roots as before the opposed gripping surfaces 330 are sloped or inclined toward each other at an angle of not greater that about 120 u00b0 also as noted above in regard to fig1 3 it is possible to have a curved gripping surface 350 to better accommodate small diameter elongated objects in most embodiments the curved gripping surface 350 will have a radius of curvature that sweeps though an.