Today’s end-of-arm-tooling (EoAT) is the key to smarter automation adoption and optimizing processes and growing your business with greater flexibility, higher output and improved quality. Collaborative robot arms (“cobots”) have leveled the playing field for small and mid-sized manufacturers as collaborative automation has become a versatile, cost-effective and user-friendly technology that allows businesses of almost any size (and any level of technical expertise) to increase productivity, improve quality and respond more nimbly to changing customer demands. But while cobots have become easier to buy and implement, they’re only part of the equation.

The robot itself can’t do any work without end-of-arm tooling (EoAT) such as grippers, sensors, and other automation peripherals. With new EoAT technology advances, small and mid-sized manufacturers can now automate even more processes, including those that require the delicacy and precision of human fingers along with the repeatability and productivity of a robot. Smarter and more versatile robotic tools, or EOAT — sensors, grippers and quick changers —empower robots to take over repetitive tasks, freeing them to handle adaptive, higher-precision and more intelligent applications that in the past were too complex to automate. More importantly, these advanced tools enable collaborative applications that allow workers and robots to operate safely side by side due to the user-friendly nature, intuitive programming and safety features of EOAT-fitted robots.