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Midea embarks on journey to transform itself into a ‘high-tech industry leader’

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Chinese home appliances giant Midea says it has completed its acquisition of German company Kuka, one of the world’s largest industrial robot manufacturers. 

While the deal prompted some consternation among those who said the German government should stop the takeover, as well as with those people who subsequently demanded the European Union make it more difficult for Chinese companies to buy EU companies, the two companies are now part of the same group.

Technically, Kuka was acquired by Midea’s subsidiary company, Mecca International.  [Read more…] about Midea embarks on journey to transform itself into a ‘high-tech industry leader’

Growing support for open standards for programmable logic controllers

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Support for open standards for programmable logic controllers – which are the computers used in industrial automation systems – has been growing in recent years. 

The organisation partly responsible for the trend, PLCopen, last year released a set of coding guidelines to help standardise PLC programming. These guidelines have been adopted and further developed by a variety of companies.

One of those is software engineering company Itris Automation, which has integrated the guidelines into its automatic static analysis tool PLC Checker.  [Read more…] about Growing support for open standards for programmable logic controllers

Integro Technologies and Universal Robots to launch new 
3D pick-n-place system at South-Tec

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Integro Technologies, a certified integrator for Universal Robots, has designed and developed a 3D pick-n-place system that will be displayed at the South-Tech event in Greenville, South Carolina, from October 24-26.

Integro says it realizes that collaborative robot arms from Universal Robots are helping manufacturers step into Industry 4.0 seamlessly and safely.

So, the company has developed a new 3D vision-guided application for random bin picking with UR robots.  [Read more…] about Integro Technologies and Universal Robots to launch new 
3D pick-n-place system at South-Tec

Axiomtek launches industrial gateway that enables ‘faster’ connection to the cloud

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Axiomtek, a provider of industrial internet of things technologies, has launched a new gateway that it claims enables devices to connect to the cloud faster.

Aiomtek says the ICO120-83D is an industrial IoT gateway designed to simplify device-cloud connection and accelerate industrial internet of things development.

It was specifically designed for smart energy and smart automation fields that need to collect and transfer data from large numbers of end devices.  [Read more…] about Axiomtek launches industrial gateway that enables ‘faster’ connection to the cloud

Emerson to acquire Paradigm for $510 million

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Industrial automation company Emerson has reached a deal to acquire Paradigm, a provider of software solutions for the oil and gas industry. 

The purchase price is $510 million, which Emerson says reflects a multiple of 13 times expected 2017 EBITDA.

Emerson says it will combine Paradigm with its existing Roxar software business to provide an exploration and production software portfolio with offerings spanning seismic processing and interpretation to production modeling.  [Read more…] about Emerson to acquire Paradigm for $510 million

China’s largest industrial robot maker Siasun opens new facility in Shengyang

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Siasun Robot and Automation, which is claimed to be China’s largest industrial robot manufacturer, has opened a new facility in Shengyang, north-east China. 

Siasun became the first member of the US Robotics Industries Association when it joined the industry body last month.

The company has invested more than $300 million in its new Shengyang industrial park, according to Chinese news agency XinhuaNet.  [Read more…] about China’s largest industrial robot maker Siasun opens new facility in Shengyang

Apple and General Electric to bring Predix industrial apps to iPhone and iPad

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General Electric has reached a partnership agreement with Apple to develop industrial apps for iOS devices – iPhone and iPad, according to a report on 9to5Mac.com. 

The website says Apple has been “looking to the enterprise sector as a key market for growing iPad sales which have slipped in recent years”.

Apple and GE said they will deliver “powerful industrial apps designed to bring predictive data and analytics from Predix, GE’s industrial internet of things platform, to iPhone and iPad”.  [Read more…] about Apple and General Electric to bring Predix industrial apps to iPhone and iPad

From two months to a few seconds: A brief overview of automotive robotic painting systems

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Painting was one of the first applications for industrial robots, but it didn’t start well. 

When they were first introduced in the 1980s at General Motors’ Michigan plant, the robots initially painted each other, according to an article on industrial robot history, published on Robots.com.

The complexity of painting is probably under-estimated because humans can do such tasks with relative ease.  [Read more…] about From two months to a few seconds: A brief overview of automotive robotic painting systems

Latest NSK spindle bearings feature high-speed, high-precision machining

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The recent EMO 2017 exhibition in Hanover, Germany provided a platform for NSK to showcase a number of innovations for the machine tool market.

Principal among them was the Robust series of angular contact ball bearings, which features NSK’s new SurSave cages that have been developed specifically to match the application profile of main spindle drives.

Robust bearings with SurSave cages create the condition for spindles to achieve high rotational accuracy, thus facilitating high-precision machining even at very high speeds.  [Read more…] about Latest NSK spindle bearings feature high-speed, high-precision machining

Chinese companies set to spend $12 billion a year on semiconductor manufacturing equipment

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Chinese semiconductor manufacturers are on course to spend $12 billion on fabrication equipment annually, according to a new report.

Semi, the industry association and provider of electronics market research, says the opportunities in China’s integrated circuits market are “expanding dramatically”.

Semi’s new China IC Industry Outlook Report also notes that China has an increasing presence in the global semiconductor manufacturing supply chain.  [Read more…] about Chinese companies set to spend $12 billion a year on semiconductor manufacturing equipment