igus announces the acquisition of elko Verbindungstechnik GmbH. With this step, the company is expanding its assembly capacities in the field of drive technology. At the same time, the motion plastics specialist from Cologne is now even closer to its customers in southern Germany, the centre of the German machine tool and automotive industry.
Robots are being used in more and more areas, from production in factories to care for the elderly. To help companies of all sizes realise the full potential of automation solutions and thus become more competitive, igus is now opening the RBTX Academy. Here, interested parties can work directly on real robots to learn the basics of robot technology or improve their skills in robot programming. The RBTX Academy opened its doors for the first time on 25th January, when igus hosted the dress rehearsal for RoboCup Junior 2025 – one of the best-known and largest robotics competitions for pupils in the world – at the Porz-Lind site in Cologne.
igus has added a new AI chatbot to the online platform RBTX.com. The interactive consultant is designed to enable companies with little previous experience and technological expertise to quickly and reliably put together Low Cost Automation (LCA) solutions to become more competitive. First users are enthusiastic about the intuitive AI solution.
Whether you’re visiting the Christmas market with friends or enjoying Christmas dinner with family, a good mulled or special wine is a must. To offer people this supposed matter of course even in times of labour shortages, winemakers must increasingly rely on automation during the grape harvest. However, slopes with a gradient of 75% and narrow rows of vines were previously considered impossible to automate. The German company CH engineering GmbH has developed a particularly compact harvesting vehicle for precisely this area of application. It uses a robust energy chain made of high-performance plastic from igus to work reliably even under difficult conditions, minimising maintenance work for winemakers.
The pressure on beverage manufacturers to produce hygienically is increasing: consumer demands for product safety are growing and global standards from authorities such as the FDA are becoming stricter. As a result, the demands on machine and system components are also increasing. To enable machine builders and operators to achieve hygienic, low-maintenance and fail-safe production, igus will be presenting lubrication-free drylin linear and drive technology in hygienic design at BrauBeviale 2024 in Nuremberg (Hall 7, Stand 436), including a design study for a ready-to-install SHT linear axis. This not only fulfils FDA and EU requirements, but also meets the EHEDG guidelines with regard to cleanability.