Robotics & Automation News

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30 industrial robot manufacturers to watch

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2018 looks all set to be a bumper year for sales of industrial robot arms across all categories – from the large, heavyweight class right down to the small desktop variety. 

With established robot makers expanding their range, and with new startups launching innovative new models, the market is more dynamic than ever.

Oversupply may be a problem going forward, especially as Chinese robot manufacturers step up their production, but even including the new companies entering the market, the number of industry-standard robot makers worldwide is relatively small.  [Read more…] about 30 industrial robot manufacturers to watch

ABB opens first-ever robotics training centre in Romania

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Industrial robotics giant ABB has opened what is said to be the “first-ever” robotics centre in Romania, according to local media.

BusinessReview.eu, an English-language Romanian website, says the new robotics facility is a public-private partnership between ABB and the Polytechnic University in Bucharest.

The centre will offer advanced training in robotics and industrial automation to future engineers and provide support to ABB customers in the future.  [Read more…] about ABB opens first-ever robotics training centre in Romania

ABB unveils newest product in the YuMi industrial robot range – this one has a single arm

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ABB Robotics has unveiled a new single-arm collaborative robot at the International Robotics Exhibition (iREX) 2017 in Tokyo.

The company says it is building on the success of YuMi, the dual-arm industrial robot which ABB describes as “the world’s first truly collaborative”.

ABB says the new single-arm collaborative robot “combines industry-leading capabilities with a much smaller footprint” (see video below).  [Read more…] about ABB unveils newest product in the YuMi industrial robot range – this one has a single arm

ABB partners with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to bring IoT intelligence to industrial plants

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Companies say the new partnership will provide “actionable insights across industrial plants, cloud and on-premises data centers for higher productivity and innovation” 

ABB and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have agreed a strategic global partnership that combines ABB’s digital offerings, through ABB Ability, with HPE’s hybrid information technology solutions.

The companies say the partnership will provide customers with solutions that “generate actionable insights from vast amounts of industrial data” to increase the efficiency and flexibility of their operations and create competitive advantage.

The companies say they will combined ABB’s “deep domain expertise” in operations technologies and HPE’s expertise in information technology to provide an integrated OT-IT solution to customers.  [Read more…] about ABB partners with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to bring IoT intelligence to industrial plants

ABB and Kawasaki to partner on collaborative robot automation

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Two industrial titans – one from Europe and the other from Asia – have agreed a partnership relating to the development of collaborative robot automation.

The two companies – ABB and Kawasaki – are both industrial giants with wide-ranging business activities, and collaborative robots are actually a relatively small part of their respective operations.

However, it’s probably a sign of how important a technology collaborative robots represent that both are now combining their resources to build an automation ecosystem.  [Read more…] about ABB and Kawasaki to partner on collaborative robot automation

Solar power industry using robotics and automation to achieve productivity gains

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The solar energy sector is seeing many advances both in the products it makes and in the way they are made. 

JinkoSolar, which claims to be the world’s largest solar photovoltaics manufacturer, says it has set a new record for solar cell efficiency.

And it has achieved this through “new applications of cutting-edge technology such as IoT devices, intelligent mobile devices, and mobile robots to its manufacturing process”.  [Read more…] about Solar power industry using robotics and automation to achieve productivity gains

ABB opens new robotics plant in Thailand

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ABB has opened a new robotics facility in Thailand. 

Officially called ABB Robotics Machine-Tending Limited, or RMT for short, the business unit is set to produce machine-tending robotics, in Rayong Province, Thailand.

The opening ceremony was attended by Staffan Herrström, Sweden’s ambassador to Thailand, and Sirichote Singsa, who oversees ABB’s robotics and motion division in Thailand.  [Read more…] about ABB opens new robotics plant in Thailand

ABB to showcase ‘broad range’ of welding technologies at FabTech 2017

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ABB says it will feature “a broad range of advanced robotic welding technology designed to enhance safety, quality and productivity” at FabTech 2017

Metal Fabricators of all sizes are adopting robotic automation to maximize throughput, reduce costs and remove people from repetitive tasks and challenging environments.

The exhibit highlights the elevated level of collaboration, digitalization and simplification unique to ABB, which helps achieve these goals while providing fabricators the flexibility to efficiently adapt production as manufacturing continues to trend from mass production to mass customization.

Collaboration comes in the form of YuMi, ABB’s dual-arm collaborative robot that can operate very closely with humans due to its “inherently safe construction”, according to ABB, and is specifically designed to meet the flexible and agile production needs of small parts assembly and material handling applications.  [Read more…] about ABB to showcase ‘broad range’ of welding technologies at FabTech 2017

Paperful office: An overview of the global forestry, pulp and paper industry

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Back in the old days, everybody would buy newspapers and magazines. Some would buy dailies, others would buy weeklies, while millions more would buy monthlies. And no one would quibble about having to pay for them, probably because most people sense that a physical, tangible object has a greater intrinsic value than a digital one. 

That old print media reading culture has all but gone now, thanks largely to the internet and the worldwide web making all manner of information available largely free of charge. No one expects, or wants, to pay for news and content any more, probably because most people think digital media should be free because they know how easy it is to make copies of digital files.

There are still many printed publications doing very well and selling in large quantities, and a list of some of the top 10 is offered below, but even the Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun – which holds the world record at 13 million copies sold in one day – has lost huge numbers of readers.  [Read more…] about Paperful office: An overview of the global forestry, pulp and paper industry

Japanese companies prepare to bring forward new generation of humanoid collaborative robots capable of a variety of industrial work

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There was a time when Japanese electronics companies were the Apples and Googles of the world, with everyone buying their products and talking about them in the media.

Many of those same formerly pre-eminent names today play second fiddle to the Silicon Valley tech giants.

But while they may not be discussed as much as they were in the past – and their products not as ubiquitous in the consumer market – Japanese companies still loom large in the industrial sector.  [Read more…] about Japanese companies prepare to bring forward new generation of humanoid collaborative robots capable of a variety of industrial work