Glossary · Guards and machine motion
Pick and place
Also known as: Pick-and-place application
German: Pick-and-Place
In automation and robotics, pick and place is the handling task in which a robot or handling system picks up parts at one position and places them at another, for example for sorting, packaging, assembly or machine loading.
- Machine safety
In one sentence
Pick and place is a handling task in which a robot or handling unit picks parts at one position and places them at another.
Example
A delta robot picks chocolates from a conveyor using vision and places them into trays at 120 picks per minute.
How it applies
- Engineering: Pick-and-place applications combine robot or gantry motion, grippers and often vision; cycle time and gripper reliability drive the design.
- Safety: Hazards include impact and crushing from fast motion, dropped parts and ejection; the application needs its own risk assessment and safeguarding per ISO 10218-2 for industrial robots.
- Documentation: Instructions should cover gripper changes, jam clearing and teaching positions; the documentation team should describe safe access for these tasks, which are often where accidents occur.
- Commissioning: Teaching positions and gripper settings should be recorded for reuse after changes.
Worn gripper fingers and vacuum cups cause dropped parts; list them in the maintenance schedule. Pick-and-place tasks carried out by collaborative robots still need a risk assessment of the complete application, including the parts and tools handled.