Teach it by moving it
Grip the wrist and walk the arm through a task once. Sandglass One records the path, the grip force and the pauses, then plays them back until you tell it to stop.
Benchtop robot arm · Pittsburgh
Sandglass One is almost on the bench.
Hourglass Robotics spent four years in a Pittsburgh machine shop teaching a six-axis arm to do the slow work small makers hate: feeding a laser cutter, sanding a tray of fixtures, turning a hundred bottles under a labeller. Sandglass One learns a task from a single demonstration, then repeats it through the night while the shop is dark.
Joining costs nothing. Pilot units ship to the first 500 benches in spring.
The doors open on the first production run
Waitlist members get a private ordering link an hour before the public page goes live.
Hold a bench for Sandglass One
Leave your email and we write when ordering opens, plus a short note each time the production line clears a milestone. Bring a friend from your shop and you both move up.
An arm that earns its place beside the vise
Every part of Sandglass One was shaped by shops with eight square metres of bench and no robotics engineer on staff.
Eight hours without a babysitter
When a part is missing or a tray jams, the arm parks itself safely and sends a photo to your phone instead of grinding on.
Bolts to a standard bench
Four M8 bolts and a 24 volt supply. No cage, no floor anchors and no integrator invoice.
Gentle around people
Force-limited joints stop on contact at forty newtons, so a sleeve caught in the path is an inconvenience rather than an incident.
Grippers that snap on
Soft pads, a vacuum cup and a pin chuck swap in under a minute with no tools and no recalibration.
Quiet enough for a studio
At forty-two decibels it hums below a laptop fan, so it can run beside a recording desk or a sleeping dog.
What four years of prototypes taught us
- Repeat accuracy at full reach
- 0.2 mm
- Payload at the gripper
- 3 kg
- Longest unattended test run
- 612 h
- Benches in the first production run
- 500
What the pilot benches said
“I taught it to load my fiber laser at six in the evening and came back to four hundred clean acrylic tags. It never once needed me.”
“We bought a bigger arm years ago and it sat behind a cage gathering dust. This one sits next to the microscope and nobody flinches.”
“Students record a task in ten minutes and watch it repeat for the rest of the term. It has changed how I teach automation.”
Before you hold a bench
What will Sandglass One cost?
Launch pricing lands between 3,900 and 4,500 dollars depending on the gripper kit. Waitlist members see the final number before anyone else.
Do I need to write code?
No. Teaching happens by hand, and the companion app only names your tasks and sets how many times they repeat.
Can it handle heavy parts?
The limit is three kilograms at the gripper, measured at full reach. Heavier work belongs to a larger arm and a safety cage.
Where will it ship?
The first run ships across the continental United States and Canada. A European run follows once certification is complete.
What if I change my mind?
Joining the waitlist creates no obligation. Reserving a unit later takes a refundable deposit that you can cancel any time before shipping.
The slowest hours of your day are ready to be handed over.
Join the line today and be among the first to put a Sandglass One to work on the tasks you stopped enjoying years ago.
Ask the people who build the arm
Schools, distributors and press are welcome. Tell us what you would like Sandglass One to do and an engineer will answer in plain language.