Facteon’s new partnership with Universal Robots to benefit local manufacturers

Global factory solutions specialist, Facteon, has announced its collaboration with Universal Robots – an international market leader in collaborative robots (cobots).

The partnership, which will make cobots more accessible to the New Zealand manufacturing sector, is the latest move from Facteon and showcases the business’s commitment to delivering world-class factory technologies for the Internet Age.

Cobots are a dynamic robotic technology that work safely alongside human operators to perform mundane, repetitive and dangerous tasks with accuracy and at speed.

Unlike industrial robots, cobots can complete a variety of tasks and don’t require a robotics specialist in-house, making them a more affordable option for manufacturers.

Nathan Soich, Head of Marketing and New Ventures at Facteon, says: “We are committed to making robotics accessible for manufacturers of all sizes. Cobots are a relatively new technology for New Zealand, but we’ve already experienced significant interest.

“We’re looking forward to seeing how our partnership with Universal Robots will revolutionise manufacturing in a wide range of industries including the appliance, medical, pharmaceutical, automotive, food and beverage sectors. There are great opportunities for manufacturers in each of these areas to improve their operations through the integration of cobots. This is a logical first step for any facility moving towards automation.”

Acting as a second pair of hands and eyes in the factory, cobots are flexible, reliable and safe. They can be quickly reprogrammed in-house to perform a variety of production tasks such as assembly, pick and place, packaging and palletising, quality inspection, machine tending, screw driving and fastening.

Today, more than 37,000 Universal Robots cobots can be found operating in thousands of production facilities across the globe.

While New Zealand and Australia have been previously underserved in the cobot space, businesses now looking to introduce cobots into their operations should consider where in the factory the technology will best add value.

Cobots have many applications so manufacturers should talk to an expert to customise a solution that’s fit-for-purpose and cost-effective.