With a majority stake in Danish cobot specialist Kassow Robots, Bosch Rexroth has caused a big surprise on the robotics scene, the Automationspraxis portal summarizes Bosch Rexroth’s latest decision.
For Bosch Rexroth, a majority stake in Kassow Robots is a “strategic investment in factory automation,” reads an explanation of the background to the decision. After all, Kassow Robots is an innovative company with a family of five cobots with market-recognized technical features, and demand for flexible robotics is growing – especially for cobots with lightweight design and inherent safety that can interact with humans.
Bosch Rexroth sees synergies with its own portfolio, for example in end-of-line solutions such as packaging and palletizing, or in intralogistics for material handling between production lines and the logistics area. “In these areas, Rexroth’s transfer technology can be combined with a lightweight robot to put packaged products on pallets or in a small load carrier, and then transport them further with an autonomous mobile robot (AMR),” says Lohr.
Kassow Robots is not a competitor to APAS Assistant
(a Bosh Rexroth robot)
With Bosch Rexroth’s decision, it’s reasonable to ask about their own robot. As we read in Automationspraxis, Bosh Rexroth does not want to completely absorb the Danish cobot experts: “The plan is to acquire Kassow Robots in its current form through a majority stake.”
Kassow Robots’ cobots also do not compete with Bosch’s existing collaborative robot, the APAS assistant: “APAS is based on an industrial robot and, with its sensor skin, is designed primarily for close collaboration with humans. Kassow Robots’ cobot product family consists of lightweight robots with long reach, payload and high flexibility. Both address different market segments.”
Robotics is a very important part of the strategy at Bosch Rexroth. It is consistently striving to further develop its own products and systems in robotics. Examples of this are the Active Shuttle as AMR for intralogistics or Smart Mechatronix – i.e., the combination of linear technology components with electronics and software for pressing and joining applications or handling tasks.
Will there be further acquisitions then? “Bosch Rexroth wants to continue to grow in factory automation and is following market developments in this area very closely.”
Source: https://automationspraxis.industrie.de/cobot/bosch-rexroth-das-sind-die-plaene-mit-kassow-robots/ [accessed on: 1.04.2022]
