Kuka celebrates 25 years with major expansion programme

Citation

(1999), "Kuka celebrates 25 years with major expansion programme", Industrial Robot, Vol. 26 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1999.04926fab.010

Kuka celebrates 25 years with major expansion programme

Kuka celebrates 25 years with major expansion programme

Keywords: Kuka, Robots

Kuka, the Midlands-based integrator and supplier of high technology industrial robots and automated production systems, marks its 25th year in the UK with the completion of a £2.2 million investment programme.

The company, whose customers include car makers Rover and Peugeot, has opened a new 36,000 sq. ft training centre, warehouse and office complex at its headquarters in Hereward Rise, Halesowen, West Midlands.

More than £700,000 has been spent on the new plant as part of an ongoing investment programme at the site.

Kuka, a pioneer of industrial robots for use in automatic assembly lines, has a long association with car makers in the UK and was established in Bedford in 1974.

One of its first contracts was to supply British Leyland with fully automated underframe transfer lines for the Metro at Longbridge.

Kuka moved to its present site in Halesowen in 1994 and continues to work closely with car makers including Ford, Rover, Peugeot and Vauxhall.

The company has recently installed a high technology robot cell at a factory in Worcester for use in the production of lightweight bonded aluminium chassis for the Lotus Elise sports car.

As well as supplying transfer lines to the car industry, Kuka robots are used by engineering companies for a range of applications from welding, handling, and cutting to machine tending and palletising.

Kuka, the UK division of German company, Kuka Schweissanlagen GmbH, employs 56 staff and has an annual turnover of £12 million.