Thank You

In 2023, Atlas Copco celebrates our 150th anniversary. From the compressed air and gas team, we want to say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to all our employees, customers, and suppliers who have been part of our journey. We could not have achieved it without you! As we pass this milestone, our unwavering commitment is to continue to provide innovation which empowers our customers to grow and drive society forward.

EXPO International (4), Siemens used a KUKA Agilus KR3 robot and a Robotiq EPick vacuum gripper to demonstrate the technology.

Robotics as a service

In a move meant to remove the barriers of automation for small and mid-size manufacturers, robot startup Formic, founded in 2020, is building a robotics-as-a-service business model that democratizes automation to make it more a ordable and accessible.

Buying a robot can be a pricy proposition requiring much more than just the initial hardware investment. After buying, say, a $40,000 robot, the additional cost of integration with other machinery can escalate the total investment to upwards of $200,000. That is cost-prohibitive for many manufacturers.

Having worked in the robot industry for years, Formic co-founder Misa Ilkhechi also recognized that

Variety Packs

Sophisticated variety-pack capabilities (5) were on display at the Aagard booth. That’s where a Comau robot powered by Rockwell Automation controls—said to be the first such combination in the packaging space— was picking three di erent items from the movers of a Rockwell iTrack linear servo motor system and placing them in a carrier in the order specified by an operator at the HMI. That HMI, says applications engineering manager Jonas Capistrant, was the Rockwell ASEM 6300 HMI.

A new automation arrow in the Aagard quiver, it permits Aagard to o er more features, including better analytics and the ability to play training videos, while o ering an improved HMI experience all around.

related videos at pfwgo.to/7845 and at pfwgo.to/7847.

manufacturers are struggling to find labor. Formic was created to solve these problems. The company takes over the design and deployment of turnkey robotic systems and charges customers an hourly rate vs. an upfront investment. That means manufacturers pay only for operational output with performance guarantees and unlimited 24/7 service.

“We are a fi nancing meets service meets robotics company,” Ilkhechi says. “Our business has to have all three working well because at the end of the day the customer is not buying a machine or components, they are buying productivity.”

Charging an hourly rate for a robot is just like hiring a person, but with the built-in guarantee that the machine will run. Each machine Formic supplies includes an edge device that sends machine data back to the Formic service team, who proactively solve problems before downtime occurs. This is important for the customer and important for Formic. “In order for us to make money, our machine has to work,” Ilkhechi says.

The company partners with robot suppliers and machine builders to build custom turnkey systems. The plan is to have a large portfolio of robots, with the first being the SL20 Palletizer (6) launched at PACK EXPO.

The SL20 Palletizer, designed for end-of-line