Robotiq Extends the Adaptive Robotic Grippers Product Line for Manufacturing Industries with High-Mix Automation Challenges.

Quebec, Canada May 31, 2012

Robotiq is thrilled to announce today the availability of the 2-Finger Adaptive Robot Gripper, an innovative new gripper, which joins the existing 3-Finger Adaptive Robot Gripper in providing unique agility and versatility in handling a wide variety of parts with a single gripper.

BACKGROUND
Today's manufacturers are under relentless pressure to reduce costs, increase agility and automate more processes, including the high-mix, labor intensive ones. However, existing technologies such as tool changers provide only limited and expensive solutions when it comes to handling different parts.

"Today's automated assembly and part transfer processes require a high degree of flexibility to deal with a high-mix of parts," says David J. Marak, Application Engineer at Adept. "The 2-Finger Adaptive Gripper is a very flexible tool that can eliminate costly changeovers and provide significant benefits for many of our customers", he continues.

"We had to load a resistance nut welding robotic cell with over 30 different parts", says Steve Spanjers, Director of Engineering at Marwood Metal Fabrication - an automotive OEM metal stamping company. "Having to design several custom grippers was a big concern. We found the 2-Finger Adaptive Gripper to be a flexible solution to grip all our parts, reduce our tooling costs and eliminate time consuming changeovers", he remarked.

MAIN FEATURES
In keeping with the idea of giving manufacturers the flexibility needed to automate high-mix processes, Robotiq designed the new 2-Finger Adaptive Gripper to provide unmatched versatility in handling a broad range of parts.

Fully programmable, the robotic gripper provides:

*Three distinct gripping modes - parallel, encompassing and inside grip - enable handling of different part geometries including flat, square, cylindrical and irregular.

*High payload to weight ratio coupled with long stroke enable handling of a variety of sizes in a compact form factor.

*Precise speed and force controls enable handling parts of different rigidities, ranging from brittle, to deformable, to stiff.

*Accurate finger control enables fast cycle times through partial open/closing.

Taken together, these capabilities make the 2-Finger Adaptive Gripper a perfect fit for high-mix processes such as light assembly, sorting and kitting, packaging, machine tending, bin picking and parts transfer.

Additional information about the new gripper is available at: http://robotiq.com/en/products/two-finger-robot-gripper

ABOUT ROBOTIQ
Robotiq designs and manufactures Adaptive Robot Grippers that enable manufacturing companies dealing with high-mix production to automate manual tasks and maximize their ROI. Based in Quebec City, Canada, we work in partnership with robot manufacturers, system integrators and end users.