SCHUNK GmbH hits the 2000 Employee Mark

1 March 2013

”To offer more than the customer expects”, was the motto of Friedrich Schunk, when he opened his machine shop in a garage in Lauffen, Germany, right after World War II. Today, SCHUNK remains an inno-vative family-owned company that has for the first time surpassed the landmark of 2000 employees.

Over the past 25 years SCHUNK has grown globally at an average rate of 12% year on year. It is this continued growth level that has enabled the company to employ over 2000 staff. With a worldwide network of directly owned subsidiaries and distribution partners in more than 50 countries worldwide, SCHUNK is known as the leading supplier for clamping technology and gripping systems with a reputation for quality and innovation that underpins the ongoing growth levels.

SCHUNK has always been a brand built upon innovation. With the clamping technology business unit already regarded as the industry benchmark, the latest innovations will complement the clamping products that comprise toolholding systems, stationary workholding, lathe chucks, chuck jaws, special hydraulic expansion technology solutions and magnetic technology.

With its business unit for gripping systems, SCHUNK produces and distributes gripping modules, rotary modules, linear modules, robot accessories, modular assembly automation, gripping system solu-tions and mobile gripping systems.

The established and market leading business units for gripping and clamping are part of a double edged strategy that is pursued by the family owned company in terms of the product program: on the one hand, they promote the technical development and continuously ex-plore new niches. On the other hand, the company is constantly im-proving the quality of its existing products. Thus, the world’s largest product portfolio of standard chuck jaws (1,200 standard chuck jaws) is available and with the most extensive range of clamping technolo-gy (more than 10,000 standard products), as well as the world’s larg-est product program for standard grippers (more than 10,000 compo-nents), SCHUNK can meet the extensive demands of the market-place.

For his life’s work, Heinz-Dieter Schunk was awarded the German Machine Tool Industry Award in 2008. In 2010, he received the Engelberger Robotics Award, the worldwide most prestigious award in the robotics field. Since 2012 the world-class goalkeeper Jens Lehmann is a brand ambassador for precise gripping and concen-trated, safe holding in the SCHUNK team.