Industrial Automation Magazine India

SCHUNK presents automated solutions at the Hannover Messe that pave the way for this transformation.

March 2024 – Responsibility and technical progress go hand in hand – in the form of resource-saving and efficient processes in a healthy working environment.

The AI-supported 2D Grasping Kit from SCHUNK grips unsorted parts safely and flexibly and relieves humans of repetitive tasks.

"Automation is the key for creating a healthy, efficient and responsible industry," emphasizes Timo Gessmann, Chief Techology Officer of SCHUNK. Therefore, the technology company is focusing on two main topics this year: "The healthy factory" and "Innovation through Collaboration." The aim is to design a production process that is healthy and economically successful for people and the environment. Innovative automation and digitalisation modules play a central role here which SCHUNK aims to collectively advance through the expansion of its expert network and an open culture of exchange."

Automation not only helps to fill gaps in qualification, but also provides the opportunity to produce faster and more efficiently, while remaining flexible in response to changing manufacturing landscapes. To facilitate the entry into automation for its customers, SCHUNK makes its expertise available via convenient digital services, among other things. Two new tools enable the validated design and individual configuration of linear modules. The new SCHUNK Control Center also offers an intuitive user experience. In future, customers will be able to access comprehensive digital modules in the known app functionality and use them easily and flexibly. For example, the parameter of electric grippers, such as gripping force, positions, and gripping speeds, can be optimally preset for the specific application before commissioning using the software available here.

The broad SCHUNK portfolio offers numerous options for flexible and intelligent machine loading and unloading.

At its booth, SCHUNK will be showcasing how industrial processes from loading and unloading to machining can be designed from a single source in an energy-saving, secure and flexible manner: with customised applications from toolholding and workholding, gripping and automation technology.

New electric gripper series such as EGU and EGK enable safe handling processes in varied production environments thanks to individual parameterisation

capability and different gripping modes. They are based on a standardised, convenient functional concept and are future-proof thanks to regular software updates. This also characterises the 2D Grasping Kit. The application kit consists of an application -specific gripper such as the EGU, a camera system and an industrial PC with SCHUNK’s own AI software. SCHUNK has developed the intelligent kit including the AI for a faster entry into autonomous handling of non-position-oriented objects. No prior knowledge of programming or image processing is required to use it. It frees skilled workers from repetitive tasks, creating a healthier and more attractive working environment.

Thanks to its unique synergy and expertise in automated machine loading, SCHUNK offers all components for a networked machine in its broad portfolio. New sensory clamping modules such as the KSP-S3 clamping force block enable automated clamping processes in the machine room and can be integrated into the machine control system thanks to IO-Link. Combined with the sensory toolholder iTENDO², the machining process can be mapped transparently, and machining time and rejects can be significantly reduced. Moreover, the hydraulic expansion toolholder of the TENDO series lowers the energy consumption of the overall process.