Latest newsNew CoLabs over­seas

In December 2020, SCHUNK put the CoLab in Brack­en­heim-Hausen into oper­a­tion. The idea behind it was to test SCHUNK prod­ucts real­is­ti­cally before they are used by the customer, demon­strating their feasi­bility and thus reducing invest­ment risks. In less than a year, several hundred process steps have already been vali­dated for customers and opti­mized for successful deploy­ment.

Digi­tal­iza­tion is a sign of the times and SCHUNK’s move towards appli­ca­tions and thus closer to its customers came at exactly the right time. Now the company is exporting its successful concept to other coun­tries: At the end of the year, SCHUNK opened two new CoLabs — in Shanghai, China, and in Morrisville, North Carolina, USA.

“With the CoLab, we want to make it easier for local customers to take the step into automa­tion tech­nology. We test the inter­ac­tion of robots with our prod­ucts.”

Dr. Simon Du, Head of SCHUNK Intec China

The new CoLabs bring SCHUNK even closer to customers, thus enabling it to respond to country-specific stan­dards and regu­la­tions. The trans­port routes are opti­mized, which not only saves time and costs, but also meets SCHUNK’s sustain­ability require­ments.

Dr. Simon Du, Head of SCHUNK Intec China, explains: “With the CoLab, we want to make it easier for local customers to take the step into automa­tion tech­nology. We test the inter­ac­tion of robots with our prod­ucts.” The employees in the CoLab carry out all the neces­sary tests and exam­i­na­tions, answer ques­tions with a detailed report and make recom­men­da­tions.

“With the new CoLab, we are now creating more oppor­tu­ni­ties for training, testing and devel­op­ment of appli­ca­tions.”

Milton Guerry, Pres­i­dent of SCHUNK Intec USA

As well as addressing poten­tial and existing customers, CoLabs are also used for training junior staff. Students and voca­tional school students can expe­ri­ence SCHUNK prod­ucts in action.

Milton Guerry, Pres­i­dent of SCHUNK Intec USA, explains: “At our Tec Centers, for some time now visi­tors have been able to expe­ri­ence the SCHUNK product world live and learn about new tech­nolo­gies during work­shops. With the new CoLab, we are now creating more oppor­tu­ni­ties for training, testing and devel­op­ment of appli­ca­tions.”