The phrase "handling technology" is derived from the word "hand" - and as we all know, the human hand is capable of a very great number of things. If we attempt within the context of industrial production to replace the human hand with technical devices, we expect first and foremost movements which are fast, repeatable and accurate. Tasks of this kind are the territory of pick-and-place devices.

Pick-and-place technology is unfortunately rather poorly represented in technical literature. This is the reason why this book has been produced. It is intended to illustrated the modern devices and methods which can be used today to produce solutions for simple handling tasks. This book is therefore addressed at practical users who are looking for ideas and solutions which will allow production processes to be raised to a new level of efficiency.