August 31, 2018 – Purple Robotics, which has just developed a vacuum gripper within one year has now been acquired by OnRobot. The acquisition takes place two months after the OnRobot merger of three robotics companies from the United States, Hungary and Denmark that created one global player with a strong focus on the market for industrial robot accessories. Now, OnRobot adds another technology to the product mix. With the acquisition of Purple Robotics, OnRobot can now offer its partners a dual vacuum gripper. Purple Robotics was established by the three Danish “super-nerds” Lasse Kieffer, Henrik Tillitz Hansen and Peter Nadolny Madsen, all of whom have a background as product developers at Universal Robots, the company behind the cobot.
OnRobot is now infusing this expertise into its own existing R&D department at its headquarters in Odense. The Purple Robotics dual vacuum gripper can, so to speak, give a robot arm two “hands” and thereby the ability to handle several items simultaneously and solving multiple tasks in one movement. Additionally, it has an electric pump integrated in the gripper itself, meaning users do not need to worry about hoses, compressed air, and cables as with conventional vacuum gripper solutions. The vacuum gripper is able to gently handle items of many different dimensions, weights, materials and shapes. The lifting capacity is 10 kilograms (22 lbs) and the robot gripper is designed for use on a range of light-weight robots from all robot manufacturers.
The acquisition of Purple Robotics means that the Vacuum Gripper will be presented in the United States to robot equipment buyers at the IMTS fair in Chicago September 10-15. After the spring merger of the three robotics companies OnRobot, Perception Robotics and OptoForce, the OnRobot product range now features a wide assortment of robot equipment, including electric grippers, force-moment sensors, gecko grippers and tactile sensors. OnRobot has also recently welcomed another strong international investor to the ownership roster – the American venture fund Summit Partners.