Kassow Robots wants to accelerate growth

Munich The seven-axis lightweight robots from the Danish manufacturer Kassow Robots are something special: Thanks to their high degree of mobility, they can also be planned for tasks where other models cannot be used due to the cramped space on site. Bosch Rexroth has recognized this. At the end of April, the Stuttgart market leader in drive and control technologies took over the cobot manufacturer.

Kassow Robots launched in 2018 and is now in the process of rolling out its business. The robots are used to collaborate with people in the work environment – hence their name “Cobots”. The five Kassow models can lift loads of up to 18 kilograms and have a range of up to 1.80 meters. According to the manufacturer, the cobots also work faster than some competing models.

“Bosch has a lot of experience with scaling industrial production and a large sales network,” founder and CEO Kristian Kassow told Handelsblatt. This should significantly accelerate growth. Bosch Rexroth, in turn, wants to expand its own portfolio in factory automation with the cobots.

It was said at the Hanover Fair that in the future it would be possible to offer integrated solutions for intralogistics. “The cobots can, for example, place finished, packaged products on a pallet or in small load carriers.” An autonomous mobile robot such as the Active Shuttle from Bosch Rexroth then takes over the onward transport.

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Established manufacturers of heavy industrial robots such as Kuka and ABB have long struggled with cobots. Their first developments were often too heavy, too expensive and too complicated to operate. That’s about to change. Kuka, for example, has launched the easy-to-program lightweight robot Iisy. “We will catch up,” CEO Peter Mohnen told Handelsblatt.

Industrial robotics and the cobot segment are growing together

Since the traditional manufacturers have overcome their initial difficulties, the cobot specialists such as Universal Robots and Kassow have to expand their product ranges and globalize sales. Universal has just launched a completely newly developed model with a larger load capacity of 20 kilos.

Kristian Kassow from Kassow Robots

The market is also becoming interesting for participants such as the Bosch Group.

(Photo: Kassow Robots)

This is also a sign that traditional industrial robotics and the booming cobot segment are growing together. This makes the market interesting for relatively new participants such as the Bosch Group.

A current major order for Kassow Robots also shows the potential applications for cobots that are currently emerging: More than 60 cobots are to be delivered to an American textile manufacturer.

The Project group of companies from Kranenburg, a specialist in the optimization of production processes, developed an automation solution for the US customer together with the Krefeld-based textile machine manufacturer Saurer Technologies.

The robots are to be mounted on a mobile platform and equipped with calibration machines. This is to ensure the smooth changing of yarn bobbins. That would not be possible with a classic six-axis machine, said Ingo Rathmann, Managing Director of Project Automation & Consulting GmbH in North Rhine-Westphalia. The seven-axis KR1018 from Kassow can “reach around corners and can therefore be used in the tightest of spaces”.

Keep the start-up spirit

Kristian Kassow once founded the cobot pioneer Universal Robots together with Esben Östergaard. After the sale to Teradyne, a leading international supplier of automatic test systems, the passionate robotics engineer founded his second company. He is confident that Kassow Robots can keep its start-up spirit in the Bosch-Rexroth group. The cobot manufacturer will remain an independent company. For himself: “I want to stay on board for a long time.”

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The takeover by Bosch Rexroth shows that the large corporations are now taking the cobot segment seriously. The RAG Foundation is also forging a robot network with a strong cobot segment.

According to experts, the need for automation will increase significantly in the coming years. One reason for this is the shortage of skilled workers. In addition, after bad experiences with interrupted supply chains, many companies want to bring production closer to home again. The number of robots sold worldwide rose last year by 27 percent to 487,000 new installations for the first time.

The business with collaborative lightweight robots is expected to grow disproportionately. “The cobot segment will definitely grow larger than that of classic heavy industrial robots,” said Universal Robots founder Östergaard. The market will continue to grow by around 60 percent over the next few years and reach a volume of billions.

It is unclear who will ultimately be the winners in the cobot segment – ​​the established industrial robot manufacturers or the pioneers such as Universal and Kassow Robots. “It’s a new game,” says Kassow. The cobot segment has its own rules, so the sales channels are very different from classic industrial robots, which are often sold in large numbers by customers in the automotive industry, for example.

It’s all a question of space and mobile solutions

It will probably be the innovative power that decides in the end. Kassow has just presented a new product family in which the controller is integrated into the base. As a result, the robot takes up even less space. This solution is therefore particularly suitable for mobile solutions such as those from Project.

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For the Project Group, the automation solution for the US plants of a large textile group is the largest order in the company’s history, worth a figure in the double-digit millions. The construction of the autonomous transport vehicles, on which the Kassow cobots are then mounted, has already started in Kranenburg, said Jan Hanenkamp, ​​Managing Director of Project Service & Production GmbH.

The calibration machines of the US textile company were previously loaded manually with the heavy bobbins. In the future, not only could staff be relieved, the new technology would also lower costs. “The traceability of the material is possible, material confusion is avoided, and there is maximum coil quality through gentle handling of the coils,” says the company in a statement.

More: Strategies against staff shortages – these jobs could be taken over by robots in the future

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