Sepro announces new robot collaboration agreement with Tederic

Sepro Group has announced the latest in a line of collaboration agreements with industry partners, revealing Tederic Germany GmbH as the most recent.

Breaking the news at the Fakuma trade fair, Sepro announced that the agreement will see Tederic supply its 3-, 5- and 6-axis robots and sprue pickers as part of injection moulding equipment packages in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Based in Dörth, Germany, Tederic Germany is the European sales arm of China-based Tederic Machinery Company, Ltd.

“It is our constant effort to create more value for our customers,” says Mirko Schnur, Geschäftsführer, Tederic Germany, GmbH. “The extensive Sepro product ranges --especially in automated processes, production cells and production lines -- are an ideal complement to our customer-specific package solutions. The partnership with Sepro, therefore, is another important milestone in realising our vision of highest efficiency.”

Jean-Michel Renaudeau, CEO of Sepro Group, added: “We share the vision of Tederic Germany to bring new options to its injection moulding customers, including access to a wide range of Sepro robots that integrate fully with IMM controls and are easy to program and operate.”

Tederic is now one of several injection moulding machinery manufacturers that partner Sepro as part of its ‘Open Innovation’ programme.

The Sepro robots rely on a single control platform that the group says “seamlessly integrates” robot control functions through IMM operator interface panels. Renaudeau says this open approach to integration, which it calls ‘Easy Package’, makes the adoption of robots

“Traditionally a ‘package’ meant a customer used to have to buy everything from one supplier,” continued Renaudeau.

“However, we call our approach to integration ‘easy’ as it is easy for the customer to buy a machine from one source and their automation from another, as well as it being easy for the IMM. Therefore, we now have 12 partners worldwide using this model.”

He explained that there is rarely conflict between the automation products offered by some of its IMM partners and its own, as "customers buy to suit their needs" and for pragmatic reasons and that being flexible in its approach is the key to its success. 

Another record year

During Fakuma, Sepro also announced it can count 2018 as its sixth consecutive year of growth, with revenues expected to top €130million, double the total of five years ago.

“It’s a pleasure to be able to announce these expected results,” said Renaudeau. “Our goal by 2022 is to achieve a turnover of €200million and be the number one provider of robots worldwide.”

This, he added, would be achieved through further collaboration with industry partners globally, as well as expansion to its production facilities across three locations enabling an increase in capacity to 5,000 robots per annum. The company has also appointed a new global Management Board to oversee its growth ambitions.

New product innovations

During Fakuma the Sepro Group is demonstrating two of its latest product innovations.

Firstly, the new S5-25 ‘Speed Robot’, designed for processors seeking a top-entry robot solution for fast-cycling injection moulding applications. During the trade fair this robot is being used on a cell where it removes ice cream tub lids from a 180-ton Sumitomo Demag IntElect injection moulding machine.

Sized for machines from 120 to 450 tons, the S5-25 Speed Robot, which is part of the S5 line of high performance 3-axis robots designed for complex applications, is ideal for simple, high speed packaging applications.

Secondly, the new ‘Seprobot’, the Group’s market entry for collaborative robots (cobots), is demonstrating a solution that is quick and easy to deploy, lower in cost and more productive than most conventional cobots.

The Seprobot package combines a Yaskawa 6-axis robot with sensors and physical guarding in a fully integrated human safety system.

Sepro says Seprobot is designed to meet the needs of most injection moulding applications where human-robot collaboration is required. Its unique design enables Seprobot to operate “two to three times faster than a typical cobot” Sepro added.

"Traditional cobots are traditionally quite slow and don't typically do independent tasks outside of the control of the operator," explained Renaudeau. "However, with our Seprobot we are enabling independent action combined with the speed of industrial robots. Safety of the human operator, as a priority, is provided by sensors."