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Industrial automation market forecast to grow to more than $350 billion by 2024

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The global market for industrial automation will grow to beyond $350 billion by 2024, according to a new report.

The European share of the global market will reach 30 per cent, says the study by  Transparency Market Research.

Transparency Market Research adds that the global industrial automation market is highly fragmented due to the presence of several players in the market. The top four players with a strong foothold in the global market held a share of 12.2 per cent in 2015.  [Read more…] about Industrial automation market forecast to grow to more than $350 billion by 2024

Connecting revolutions: Exclusive interview with Stäubli Robotics automotive boss

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A range of Stäubli robots
A range of Stäubli robots

Stäubli is one of the first industrial automation companies, having been established all the way back in the late-1800s and quickly developing what was then advanced technology for the weaving industry before the century was out. The company even owns Jacquard machines, Jacquard being the pioneering manufacturer of looms that defined the original Industrial Revolution – and the inventor of punched cards to control machines, from which flowed computer programming principles. 

Then in the early 1980s, Stäubli bought the Unimation business from Westinghouse, Unimation being the company which developed the first industrial robot arm, the Unimate.

Today, Stäubli is still one of world’s largest industrial robotics and automation companies, and its product manager in the US is Paul Deady.  [Read more…] about Connecting revolutions: Exclusive interview with Stäubli Robotics automotive boss

Genuine Parts buys Braas

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genuine parts

Genuine Parts says its subsidiary, Motion Industries, has acquired Braas.

Braas is a multi-regional distributor of products and services for industrial automation and control, specializing in pneumatics, motion control, industrial networking, machine safety, robotics and related industrial parts.

Founded in 1961, Braas is based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and serves thousands of customers throughout the Midwest and Southeastern United States from a network of five sales offices and three warehouses.  [Read more…] about Genuine Parts buys Braas

Video: Latest list of the world’s leading industrial robot manufacturers

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Mitsubishi currently has 70,000 industrial robots installed worldwide, Robotics and Automation News has learned.

As a result, the company is now included in the Robotics and Automation News list of the world’s top industrial robot manufacturers.

Other companies in the new list are Stäubli and Universal, which makes collaborative robots.  [Read more…] about Video: Latest list of the world’s leading industrial robot manufacturers

The future of work: Generation Z against the Machine

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kuka writing robot

Stephen Parker, CEO of digital engagement specialist Parker Software, explains how businesses can use technology to enhance jobs rather than replace them

There is a persistent myth that the rise of automation, robotics and software is a recipe for disaster. Many people worry that technological innovation will lead to the demise of human jobs, otherwise known as structural unemployment.

These claims are dangerous for “generation Z”, creating an uneasy atmosphere of automation anxiety and paranoia over job security.

Many of us have heard about the idea of automation anxiety, which is the fear that robotics and software will one day come to replace humans in the workforce.  [Read more…] about The future of work: Generation Z against the Machine

Mitsubishi says it has 70,000 industrial robots installed worldwide

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mitsubishi-robots

Mitsubishi Robotics currently has 70,000 industrial robots installed around the world. 

A reliable source close to the company made the information available to Robotics and Automation News exclusively on condition of anonymity.

Mitsubishi Robotics is now the eighth-largest industrial robot maker on the Robotics and Automation News list of the top industrial robot manufacturers in the world.

Consumer demand, and the demanding consumer, for the holidays

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thanksgiving

By Thomas R. Cutler

Consumer spending trends suggest this holiday season for retailers and logistics companies will drive an improvement of 15 per cent year-over-year.

With retail sales in the US expanded 0.8 per cent in October after a strong 1 per cent gain in September, the Wall Street Journal’s Josh Mitchell reported, in the best two-month stretch of sales in at least two years.

The brisk spending is a strong sign that the economy is picking up steam, with both wages and employment rising. The expansion, mostly e-commerce, proves that once again online sales are growing at triple the rate of overall retail sales.  [Read more…] about Consumer demand, and the demanding consumer, for the holidays

How to make the most of robotics and automation in your manufacturing business

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brushtec-image

Barry Crackett is a product designer at Brushtec, a brushware manufacturer which has benefitted greatly from embracing robotics and automation. In this article, he explains how your business could also benefit from automation.

The UK is falling far behind much of the industrialised world when it comes to embracing robotics and automation, according to The Telegraph.

There are reportedly 500 robots for every 10,000 manufacturing employees in South Korea, 300 in Germany and 200 in Denmark and Sweden.

In stark contrast the UK has just 71 for every 10,000 workers, which means that our manufacturing industry might struggle to catch up if companies don’t start taking stock of the situation and putting more effort into adapting to survive.  [Read more…] about How to make the most of robotics and automation in your manufacturing business

Huge reboot: What Trump’s aversion to trade blocs could mean for the US robotics, automation and manufacturing industries

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The US automotive manufacturing industry is probably going through some angsty times right now, what with president-elect Donald Trump reiterating his campaign pledge to repeal or at least renegotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and any other free-trade deal previous administrations have signed up to. 

For a highly globalised industry like the automotive sector, which sources parts from all over the world and may assemble its vehicles in any number of countries simultaneously based on a common platform, this is perhaps one election promise which it would rather not be kept.

However, Trump has already produced a presidential address style video in which he says: “I am going to issue a notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a potential disaster for our country.

“Instead, we will negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores.”  [Read more…] about Huge reboot: What Trump’s aversion to trade blocs could mean for the US robotics, automation and manufacturing industries

Yaskawa expands in China and makes plans for Brexit amid US-China trade talks

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Chinese President Xi Jinping met with US President Barack Obama discussed trade earlier this week, and agreed this was a crucial time for relations between the two nations amid growing areas of competition. 

One of the business sectors being contested is manufacturing, where advancements in the crucial technologies of robotics and automation could be the factor which decides which country is more successful.

China has embarked on an ambitious plan to transform the country from the low-wage, labour-intensive workshop of world into an advanced manufacturing nation, capable of developing its own high technology, in particular industrial robots and the internet of things.  [Read more…] about Yaskawa expands in China and makes plans for Brexit amid US-China trade talks