The GPP5000 pneumatic parallel gripper won the coveted quality certificate for outstanding industrial design. The GPP500 is a pneumatic state-of-the-art component that excels in operation with robots and handling gantries most importantly thanks to its outstanding mechanical properties, such as featuring stainless-steel guides and comprehensive sealing in accordance with the IP 67 standard.

The jury of the iF DESIGN AWARD gave the coveted iF DESIGN AWARD 2018 to Zimmer Group no less than four times in the Industry / Skilled Trades category. Zimmer Group thus ranks among the laureates of the globally renowned design label. The iF DESIGN AWARD is presented once a year by the oldest design institution in the world, the iF International Forum Design GmbH.

Zimmer Group, as a leading manufacturer of automation components, has been honored four times over with this year's iF DESIGN AWARD 2018 in the Industry / Skilled Trades category.

The GPP5000 pneumatic parallel gripper won the coveted quality certificate for outstanding industrial design. The GPP500 is a pneumatic state-of-the-art component that excels in operation with robots and handling gantries most importantly thanks to its outstanding mechanical properties, such as featuring stainless-steel guides and comprehensive sealing in accordance with the IP 67 standard.

The second award-winning product, the GPD5000IL hybrid centric gripper, impresses not only by its commanding mechanical properties but also thanks to its integrated IO-Link control system which includes a pneumatic valve. This groundbreaking technology ensures a very short response time and drastically improves efficiency when compared to conventional pneumatic grippers - thus more than living up to its claim as a premium component on the market. The integrated sensors detect the position of the gripper jaws and thus make it possible not only to monitor the process but also, for example, to identify workpieces based on diameter using a measurement executed during the gripping process. In total, the GPD5000IL represents an extremely energy-saving and forward-looking Industrie 4.0 component.

The GED5000 electric centric gripper from Zimmer likewise won an iF Award. This gripper unites preeminent mechanical properties with an innovative, electrical drive concept and a newly developed control platform. These features, combined with integrated sensors and communication over I/O-Link, offer the customer significant additional benefit. For example, the products ability to transfer status data about its own internal operating parameters (condition monitoring) over the superordinate IO-Link Master to the control system or to visualize such data using an app developed by Zimmer Group or mobile devices right at the site of product operation. It is also possible to select 31 pre-programmed application data sets or to alter and store them based on respective application. The GED5000 is an Industrie 4.0 product in the best sense of the term.

The GEP2000 electric parallel gripper, the fourth product to win the award, is equipped with innovative features for Industrie 4.0 technology for the mid-price range. In principle, it features the communicative and sensory properties of Zimmer Group's premium gripper product line combined with an aluminum-steel guiding system and sealing in accordance with the IP 40 standard, compactly designed and available at a very attractive price point.

In its commentary, the panel praised the sustainable approach of the award-winning products with respect to the consumption of resources in production and operation. Furthermore, their clear design vocabulary and functional structure thanks to a formal and colorful design were emphasized as imbuing positive utility value.

Design and function
The demands of industry on components and systems are high - they are used in extremely different industrial branches and must be adaptable to a wide-range of production scenarios. They fulfill completely different functions and are operated by personnel around the world who possess different levels of skill. This requires clear, catchy product design. The function of industrial design has many layers. Ideally, it communicates the values a brand represents, it enhances brand awareness and makes a case for itself with the uncompromising functionality of products. Even though the latter is most important, industrial products also carry the emotional impact of a company to the customer. If it is to have a long-term, sustainable appeal, design should not align itself with superficial fashion trends or temporary hype but, as in the case of Zimmer Group, express longevity, quality and innovative power through a clear, recognizable design vocabulary. This vocabulary subdivides products into functional units and ensures that the user is able to grasp functions upon first glance, even to a degree with complex products, and to operate them intuitively and safely. Thus, design communicates high recognition value, a corporate claim and function. But design also ensures that the user can quickly distinguish between product families. In the industrial component sector, the leeway within which design can maneuver is significantly smaller than in the area of consumer goods, but the challenges are all the greater. One aspect has moved ever more into the focus of consideration over the last years: the area of conflict that exists between sustainability, downward compatibility and investment protection on the one hand and ever shorter innovation cycles as a result of the environment of Industrie 4.0 on the other. Zimmer Group has been successful in uniting these aspects thanks to the implementation of a platform strategy across all products. As one of the technology leaders in the field of automation, Zimmer Group additionally pursues the goal of giving the outstanding performance of its products to customers through excellent design all while living up to its claim as "The Know-How Factory."