With its additively manufactured gripper fingers, Schunk Intec Ltd (www.gb.schunk.com) says it has opened a new chapter in “online sales in the field of mechanical and plant engineering”.

One of its customers is the automotive supplier ROS GmbH, which is using the 3-D design tool Schunk eGRIP for a variety of robot handling applications in assembly systems.

Christopher Lamprecht, production planner at ROS’s Coburg plant, says that just a few mouse clicks are sufficient to
upload the STEP or STL data, design the finger and initiate the order for the additively manufactured gripper components.

“It really is child’s play. The operator configures the required gripper fingers by specifying the material, gripper type, installation position and finger length.

"Once this basic information has been entered, eGRIP shows the delivery date and the exact price; and if you change the material, the price changes automatically, making it very easy to compare the available materials with each other.”

With around 300 employees, ROS produces parts for seat systems — in particular, head rests and seat adjustment mechanisms — at plants in Coburg and Ummerstadt.

Almost 20 module variants are produced on two automatic machines that can achieve an output of several hundred parts per hour.

Mr Lamprecht said: “By being able to additively manufacture gripper fingers, we can use the same base gripper to cover all requirements. I don’t have to change any mountings or undertake retrofitting work. This is a huge advantage.”

Schunk estimates that eGRIP can reduce the design time for gripper fingers by up to 97%, the production and delivery time by up to 88% and the finger price by up to 50%.

Currently, three materials are on offer via eGRIP: stainless steel, aluminium and polyamide 12.