Empire Robotics, Versaball and 3D Printsmith

“3D Printsmith got me my parts quickly and for a reasonable price. It’s obvious that keeping their clients happy is a top priority and they are willing to go the extra mile to do so. You can’t ask for more than that.”

John Amend, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer
Empire Robotics, Inc.

3D modeled robotics parts at 3D Printstmith in Boston

Boston company Empire robotics are enjoying great success with their innovative robotic arm gripper “Versaball”.

The industry press has been buzzing about this amazingly versatile gripper, which instantly adapts to grip any shape, via a clever system of a soft outer bag containing loose particles which interlock when a vacuum is applied to the bag, and allow pick and place of almost all object shapes. A basic 1 minute overview of the system can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3BQIcOl4OQ

Boston-based 3D Printsmith was tasked by Empire Robotics to make some of their pre-production prototype parts, from Empire’s CAD models. 3D printed parts made rapidly for the project included high detail Polyjet models, with connecting threads printed directly from the CAD models. Although some of the parts could have been made by traditional methods, the 3D printed route provided them with parts quickly, and without needing hard tooling or long lead time machined parts. Fit and function were verified and or adjusted early in the process with 3D printed iterations, and Empire were able to push forward with marketing and R&D concurrently.

Empire’s smart and entertaining choice of application examples for their gripper included a combination with Universal Robots R5 arm programmed to handily obliterate all inferior humans at Beer Pong, as seen in this video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXWOiEzQ89A