OnRobot acquires Purple Robotics and its dual vacuum gripper for cobots

September 4, 2018 – OnRobot, the Denmark-based cobot technology provider, has acquired Purple Robotics, developer of the world’s first gripper specifically for cobots.

The acquisition takes place two months after the merger of OnRobot, Perception Robotics and OptoForce.

Purple Robotics was established by 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 world’s first cobot. Kieffer, Purple Robotics CEO, looks forward to joining the OnRobot organization together with his colleagues.

“It has been really good fun to create a brand new robotics company and to disrupt the market for vacuum grippers with our invention,” Lasse Kieffer said. “It makes a lot of sense and creates significant synergy to join forces with OnRobot, which has already created a strong, global sales organization. This means that we can focus 100 per cent on developing the world’s coolest robotics products. Together, we can go far.”

Three months after launching the product, 40 partners in 25 countries have concluded partnership agreements with Purple Robotics for the patented innovation.

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, 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.

It takes less than 30 minutes to install the Purple Robotics gripper on a robot and start it up. The vacuum gripper is able to gently and efficiently handle items of many different dimensions, weights, materials and shapes. The lifting capacity is 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and the robot gripper is designed for use on a wide range of lightweight robots from all robot manufacturers.

“It must be easily conceivable to automate even small production batches,” said Enrico Krog Iversen, CEO, OnRobot. “Otherwise, robot technology is not a good investment.”

The vacuum gripper will be showcased at IMTS in Chicago, September 10-15.