After a busy year product-wise in 2020, OnRobot today released its first new end-of-arm tool (EOAT) for 2021. The VGP20 is an electric vacuum gripper that can handle payloads of 20kg (44.09lbs). OnRobot said the VGP20 is “compatible with all leading robot brands” and is designed primarily for heavy-duty palletizing applications, but it can be used for other material handing and machine tending applications.

OnRobot’s VGP20 is all-electric and ready to go out of the box. It provides unlimited cup and airflow customization and multichannel functionality, allowing it to be deployed on multiple items of different shapes and sizes. For example, a soft grip can be used to handle delicate items and a hard grip can be used for handling bulky, heavy cardboard boxes with porous surfaces.

There’s an option to enable continuous monitoring of the VGP20’s air flow. If this option is selected, and the vacuum is interrupted for any reason, the robot will come to an immediate halt and an alert pop-up window will be displayed in the gripper software.

“Our customers asked for a cost-effective, easy-to-deploy vacuum gripper that can pick up bulky, heavy-duty payloads while being intelligent enough to handle a wide range of items, including those with irregular shapes and porous surfaces,” said Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO, OnRobot. “The VGP20 combines power, intelligence and ease-of-use that competes with expensive, complex pneumatic grippers.”

OnRobot offers two other electric vacuum grippers: the VG10 and VGC10 that both can lift payloads up to 15 kg (35 lb). Essentially, the VGC10 is a smaller, lighter version that is about half the size of the VG10. OnRobot started offering electric vacuum grippers after its acquisition of Purple Robotics in August 2018.

2020 was been a busy year for OnRobot. 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

OnRobot won an RBR50 Innovation Award in 2020 for its One System Solution, which effectively turns all of OnRobot’s products into multi-purpose solutions that can be attached, programmed, and changed in minutes. It’s another example of OnRobot’s continued innovation and disruption of the EOAT market since it was founded in 2015.

“Efficient packaging and palletizing performance is crucial to success for manufacturers, e-commerce and logistics companies. However, labor shortages present an ongoing challenge and performing these jobs by hand is both monotonous and unergonomic,” says Iversen. “The powerful and versatile VGP20 gripper enables companies to automate these tasks, providing relief to workers while improving overall productivity and quality.”