OnRobot CEO Enrico Krog Iversen alluded to a series of upcoming product announcements during his appearance on last week’s episode of The Robot Report Podcast. The 2020 RBR50 company has released the first of those products, the MG10 electric magnetic gripper. It is designed for material handling, assembly and machine tending applications in manufacturing, automotive and aerospace environments.

OnRobot said the MG10 is compatible with all major robots brands, including ABB, Doosan, Fanuc, KUKA, Universal Robots (UR), and Yaskawa. The MG10 features programmable force control and a built-in proximity sensor that can detect part presence, as well as if part has been picked up or not. It also doesn’t require external compressed air or cables, which could reduce deployment costs.

OnRobot said the MG10 is ideal for odd-shaped parts and large, flat metal sheets. The MG10 shouldn’t leave marks and can handle perforated, abrasive, or dusty work pieces. If power is lost, OnRobot said the MG10 will keep the magnetic force and not drop the workpiece.

“Standard magnetic grippers are a real hassle because almost every time your application or workpiece changes, you have to make manual adjustments to compensate for the gripper’s lack of functionality,” said Iversen.

As for the payload the MG10 can handle, OnRobot said it depends on the orientation and the different properties of the gripper’s fingers and the workpiece. OnRobot said the suggested maximum payload of a pure steel workpiece picked with the fingers without pads is 10 kg. The same type of workpiece picked with the fingers with the delivered protective pads will be 3 kg. Read this datasheet for more information about the MG10’s specifications.

“As the manufacturing sector moves towards low-volume, high-mix production, the ability to move quickly from one application setup to another quickly is more than a ‘nice to have.’ It’s essential,” said Iversen.

OnRobot at the end of February 2021 released its VGP20 electric vacuum gripper that handles payloads of 20kg (44.09lbs). The VGP20 is designed primarily for heavy-duty palletizing applications, but it can be used for other material handing and machine tending applications.

2020 was also a busy year for OnRobot. It won an RBR50 Innovation Award in 2020 for its One System Solution, which effectively turns all of its products into multi-purpose solutions that can be attached, programmed, and changed in minutes.  Here is a recap of the products OnRobot introduced last year:

• OnRobot Eyes 2.5D vision system
• OnRobot Sander
• OnRobot Screwdriver
• OnRobot Soft Gripper
• 3FG15 three-finger gripper
• 2FG7 parallel gripper

Iversen, who served as CEO and partner of UR from 2008-2016, discussed his impact on the robotics industry on The Robot Report Podcast. He also took us behind the scene of a pivotal decision he made while at the helm of UR. And he shared his thoughts about recent innovation in end-of-arm tooling and OnRobot’s pending jump into software. You can listen to the podcast below.