As collaborative robots continue gaining strength to take on heavier-duty tasks like palletizing and machine tending, their end-of-arm tooling needs bolstering as well. Addressing this need, OnRobot unveiled two brawny new grippers at Automate this week designed to provide a sturdy grip on bulkier workpieces while maintaining the flexibility and ease-of-use that has popularized cobots on factory floors.

The 3FG25 and 2FG14 grippers represent OnRobot's most powerful models yet, with payloads of 25kg and 14kg respectively. But they also continue the company's emphasis on compact, all-electric construction that side-steps the bulk and complexities of traditional pneumatic grippers.

"As cobots grow more powerful, our customers are scaling up their collaborative applications into heavier-duty realms that were previously off limits," stated Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO of OnRobot. "These new grippers deliver unrivaled gripping force and payload capacities while maintaining the customizability and effortless integration our end-of-arm tools are known for."

Indeed, while recent cobot models from leading brands are pushing into payloads up to 30kg, OnRobot is ensuring the gripper capabilities keep pace. The three-fingered 3FG25 provides a stout 25kg gripping capacity to handle bulky metal workpieces, yet maintains a lightweight, compact form factor as an all-electric gripper.

It builds upon the proven design of OnRobot's widely adopted 3FG15 model, but with newly designed fingers engineered for securely grasping heavier objects. Like its smaller sibling, the 3FG25 can handle cylindrical, odd-shaped, and boxed items with ease.

The two-fingered 2FG14 gripper, meanwhile, doubles the payload capacity of OnRobot's popular 2FG7 model while also providing a 30% increase in total stroke length. Its 14kg payload capacity makes it ideal for machine tending applications where lubricants, coolants, and other harsh factors are in play.

"The 2FG14 allows our cobots to maintain maximum payload, even in demanding work environments," said Alex Pinkerton, a mechanical engineer at Gosiger who has tested the new gripper. "It has an easy, operator-friendly interface and is perfect for packaging, machine tending, assembly, and other challenging applications where you need a solid grip."

Both new grippers continue OnRobot's focus on simplifying robotic deployments through an integrated ecosystem of hardware, software, and accessories. This allows the grippers to be easily swapped between applications and provide a true "plug-and-produce" experience by minimizing complexity and programming requirements.

"We're really driving the 'plug' part of plug-and-produce to the extreme by offering robust, all-in-one solutions," explained Kristian Hulgard, OnRobot's General Manager. "Users get fingers, flanges, cables, software - everything they need in one package to deploy these grippers across their heavy-duty cobot operations with minimal setup time."

To further streamline deployments, OnRobot announced a collaboration with Ellison Technologies to integrate its new heavy grippers with Ellison's AutoPilot solution powered by OnRobot's D:PLOY software platform. The combined offering automates the development of CNC machine tending applications, enabling complex multi-robot cell deployments without any programming or simulation required.

"Companies can't afford lengthy deployments with today's labor gaps and supply chain pressures," said Greg Haley, Ellison's VP of Automation. "D:PLOY and these powerful new OnRobot grippers put fully automated, mixed-part CNC tending in reach for more manufacturers than ever by radically reducing programming complexity and changeover downtimes."

As cobots march into heavier-duty applications across factories, OnRobot's expanded line of end-of-arm tools equips manufacturers with the payload capacities, environmental resilience, and foolproof usability required to maximize their collaborative automation investments. The 3FG25 and 2FG14 grippers demonstrate OnRobot's commitment to providing tightly integrated solutions that make heavy-lifting tasks almost as easy as a firm robotic handshake.