FINLAND – WORLDWIDE – The day after Cargotec stepped up its fight to be allowed to merge with fellow countrymen Konecranes to form a giant materials handling entity, its subsidiary Kalmar announced its latest voyage into robotics.
The grandly named ‘Kalmar Robotic Portfolio’ consists of four separate products and the Kalmar RoboTractor, RoboLifter, RoboStacker and RoboHandler prototypes are currently being tested at different sites around the world. Kalmar says its goal is to make automation and robotics technologies accessible to new customer segments including distribution centres and heavy logistics in addition to ports and terminals.
The new autonomous, self-driven units will be targeting operations in mixed-traffic environments in the future and Kalmar says nowadays, with intelligence moved to equipment from central systems, robotised solutions don’t require heavy investment in infrastructure. Their flexibility and scalability make them particularly suited to smaller equipment fleets.
All the equipment in the Kalmar Robotic Portfolio will be built on a standardised platform, aiming at being simple and cost effective to deploy with the help of cloud technologies as well as being fully compatible with Kalmar automation solutions. Lasse Eriksson, Vice President, Technology at Kalmar observed:
“In our industry someone loses their life on the job every five days. We want to help our customers to keep their people safe and reduce their impact on the environment with cutting-edge equipment solutions that make no compromises in terms of safety, sustainability and productivity.
”Our intelligent and flexible Robotic Portfolio is designed to be easy to deploy, maintain and scale for customers across a wide variety of segments. With this new portfolio we are laying the foundations for a future driven by fully autonomous, unmanned material handling with zero accidents, zero emissions and maximum productivity. We are keen to continue the interactions with our customers and collaborate on pilot projects with customers who would benefit from these future solutions in their operations.”
Kalmar has released a video to illustrate the benefits in safety and environmental factors which can be seen HERE.
Claim your free directory listing and view our advertising rates >