Roof grippers at Landshut Weight makes a big difference in the production of carbon fibre reinforced polymer roofs at Landshut. Handling raw CFRP sheets and finished roof panels requires purpose-built robot grippers with end-of-arm tooling that clamps, lifts and repositions components on press lines.

The Lightweight Construction and Technology Centre at Landshut uses a large 3D-printed gripper element for this process. The gripper weighs around 120 kilograms and can be manufactured in just 22 hours. It is a hybrid of two printing methods: vacuum cups and needlegripper clamps are produced using selective laser sintering, while the main shell and load-bearing frame use largescale printing from recycled plastics.

The gripper performs two functions in a single pass, loading raw CFRP and extracting the finished roof panel. This reduces cycle time and cuts robot movements per part.

From three robots to one In summer 2023, BMW Group introduced a more refined gripper design at Landshut, beginning with a topological

74 April 2026