The Siemens Drive Technologies Division and KUKA Roboter have signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement.
The objective of this cooperation is integration of KUKA robots and Siemens machine tool solutions (CNC) for loading machine tools.
"With this joint approach, the two companies are strengthening the fundamental idea of integrated production and can, for example, develop new markets by close intermeshing of machine tool tasks and loading tasks," says Manfred Gundel, CEO of KUKA Roboter.
The CNC control from Siemens and the robot controls from KUKA are suitable for integrating robot and CNC technology.
"With this cooperation, we are deepening our many years of cooperation and advancing intelligent automation solutions as outlined by the Industry 4.0 project for the benefit of both partners and to expand business," says Dr. Robert Neuhauser, CEO of Business Unit Motion Control Systems at Siemens.
Highly flexible and fully automated production today demands complete integration of robots into the production flow and into the automation environment.
In this area, in particular, applications for robots and machine tools are growing together steadily as a result of new requirements and technological progress.
The two partners aim to better serve industries with high-end automation requirements in loading and machining.
With the shared development, customers will have access to new products and solutions that are coordinated optimally over their entire life cycle, from design, to production simulation, to engineering and the production shop level.
Moreover, the two companies have agreed on including future aspects of robot automation with reference to the Industry 4.0 project into their joint activities.