SCHUNK

Company Overview

SCHUNK is a family-owned company and a global leader in equipping modern manufacturing and robotic systems. With over 3,500 employees across 9 production facilities and 34 owned subsidiaries, SCHUNK ensures a strong global market presence. Offering more than 11,000 standard components, SCHUNK provides the world's most extensive range of gripping systems and clamping technology from a single source. Through consistent digitalization of its portfolio, users can design production processes that are efficient, transparent, and cost-effective. Additionally, customers benefit from comprehensive application knowledge that lays the foundation for tomorrow's innovative manufacturing.

Given the extensive range of products, SCHUNK's offerings can be broadly categorized into four main families:

Workpiece Clamping Technology

SCHUNK develops equipment for clamping workpieces during machining processes. Available solutions include rotating equipment such as self-centering chucks for lathes, hybrid and/or customized self-centering chucks for vertical and horizontal lathes, milling machines, machining centers, and grinders.

For clamping workpieces on milling machines and machining centers, SCHUNK offers manual or automatic clamping vises, as well as cubes or towers for mounting multiple workpieces. These devices can be combined with zero-point clamping systems featuring electromechanical clamping, ensuring rigid, rapid, and highly precise (maximum error of 0.005 mm) replacement of various clamping equipment on machine tools.

Magnetic clamping plates are also available for milling operations, along with vacuum clamping systems. For extremely precise workpiece clamping, SCHUNK provides tool grinding chucks with various interfaces, enabling perfect clamping of tool shanks and ensuring a concentricity error of less than 0.003 mm, measured over a shank length equal to 2.5 times its clamping diameter.

Toolholding Technology

Toolholders are commonly used for various machining operations on machine tools, including drilling, milling, threading, and tapping, typically on all types of metals through mechanical material removal in the form of chips.

Key industrial sectors utilizing toolholders include aerospace, automotive, electronics, e-mobility, medical, and life sciences.

This category includes toolholders with various universal shank types compatible with all machine tools, offering flexibility and precision for clamping tools with cylindrical shanks (e.g., ER collets, Weldon, Whistle Notch, hydraulic expansion, TRIBOS polygonal clamping).

Solutions are also available for clamping disc cutters and other tool types, such as disc cutter holders, combined cutter holders, and threaded interface holders.

For applications requiring extreme rigidity, SCHUNK offers toolholders that utilize heat shrink technology for clamping. All products are balanced to G2.5 standards and can achieve rotational speeds up to 25,000 RPM.

Gripping Systems

SCHUNK's gripping systems come in various types and models. Options include parallel grippers for loading and unloading small or large workpieces, featuring wide jaw strokes to facilitate easy handling. These systems support different gripping forces (pneumatic, electric) with adjustable closing forces tailored to the specific workpiece.

Compact two-jaw collaborative grippers can be seamlessly integrated with robots from various manufacturers (e.g., Mitsubishi, Fanuc, ABB). The gripping system selection is tailored to specific industrial sectors and environments, often considering protection ratings against dust and liquids (IP ratings).

Three-jaw self-centering grippers move simultaneously to clamp cylindrical workpieces with high precision. Specialized grippers are also available for handling various workpiece types and applications.

Beyond machine tending, gripping systems are utilized for component assembly, workpiece transfer, and manipulation. Anthropomorphic hand versions (left and right) are also available, capable of replicating human hand movements.

Automation Technology

This category encompasses a wide range of products offering technical solutions for complete services in automatic workpiece handling and high-speed assembly.

Available components include rotary actuators, linear modules, torque sensors, rotary tools for deburring operations with robots, compensation units with repeatability precision of 0.02 mm, collision and overload monitoring units for robots, and application kits equipped with camera systems to ensure correct gripping of unoriented workpieces, seamlessly adapting to the machine environment.