OnRobot opens regional HQ in Singapore

Denmark-based OnRobot, the “one-stop shop for end-of-arm tooling”, has opened regional headquarters in Singapore.

OnRobot will focus on growing demand for end-of-arm-tooling (EOAT) in robotics automation in Southeast Asia.The company specialises in EOAT for collaborative applications, where machines and humans come together for faster and cost-effective production.

With in-built intelligent features, versatility, flexibility, and its user-friendly nature, EOAT enables easy-to-use, install, integrate and carry out automation. The company says Southeast Asian workforces could benefit as the workers generally do not have deep knowledge of robotics and its related functionality. 

“On a global level, demand for EOAT is expected to rise as robots are increasingly adopted. OnRobot’s new regional headquarters in Singapore demonstrates our commitment to the robotics market in Southeast Asia and belief that the industry has strong regional growth potential. Singapore being the automation hub is ideal for OnRobot’s regional headquarters. Our focus will be to provide complete collaborative robot solutions in the Southeast Asian region to help manufacturers attain productivity while reducing costs and improving their ability to scale,” said OnRobot’s CEO Enrico Krog Iversen.

With the International Federation of Robotics forecasting a sharp growth in cobot sales from 4% to 34% of a US$25 billion market by 2025, a strong shift in favour of EOAT is widely expected. This shift is expected to significantly affect Southeast Asia, a region where the automotive and electronics industries are booming, as cobots and other industrial robots are deployed to boost efficiency and productivity.

With major demand in Southeast Asia coming from industries such as electronics, automotive and computer numerical control (CNC) machining, and with huge potential for collaborative automation, tOnRobot plans to target Southeast Asia aggressively. Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia are prominent targets as they have high industrial robot density.

OnRobot has also appointed James Taylor as GM, APAC to lead the regional team, overseeing all commercial activities in the Asia Pacific region (APAC). James joins OnRobot from US-based Otis Elevator, where he was the Senior Director of New Equipment Innovation for the last three years.

Prior to that, Taylor spent 15 years in China. While in China, he was appointed GM for Universal Robots (UR) from 2014 to 2016. At UR, he was instrumental in developing the business in China from the startup phase. Taylor holds a B.S. in Biology from the US and a MBA from Rutgers Business School. He is also fluent in Mandarin.

OnRobot currently has nine products comprising grippers, sensors and tool changers. The EOAT provider aims to reach 40 to 50 products, including grippers, sensors, vision and other technologies to enable collaborative robot solutions in Southeast Asia and across the world.

“Our award-winning Gecko Gripper uses micro-scaled fibrillar stalks that adhere to a surface using powerful van der Waals forces. This feature allows robots to pick up flat, smooth objects with significant energy savings over existing grippers. The gripper does not require compressed air to function which saves both cost and power and makes it a revolutionary product,” Iversen said.

Founded in 2015, OnRobot merged with Perception Robotics and OptoForce in 2018 and also acquired Purple Robotics in 2018. In April 2019, Blue Workforce's rights were also acquired along with 12 developers. OnRobot's product range includes a wide range of robotic equipment such as electric grippers, force and torque sensors, vacuum grippers and tool changers.

Explore:

Watch a customer video of a CNC machines company which migrated from using a single gripper which had a cycle time of 27 seconds to using the OnRobot RG2 dual gripper. This reduced cycle times to 12 seconds.