Bad Neustadt a. d. Saale, Germany. Kuka Roboter GmbH and Siemens work together in many areas. More specifically, the two companies have been cooperating successfully for years in order to develop more effective ways of integrating robots into automation technology. In 2013 Kuka and Siemens officially committed themselves to jointly optimizing the interplay between Siemens‘ Sinumerik CNCs and Kuka‘s robots in a variety of machine tool environments. Moreover, Kuka is a major customer for Siemens motors. The delivery of the 500,000th Siemens motor to Kuka was celebrated at a special partnership event held at the Siemens motor plant in Bad Neustadt, Germany, in mid-July 2014.

The demand for industrial robots is growing. According to estimates published by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), 1.66 million industrial robots will be installed worldwide by 2016 – approximately half a million more than were in place in 2011. This is good news not only for Kuka and Siemens but also for their partnership.

To remain competitive in this growth market, both companies are now working hard to ensure that the hardware and software of the various components and machines concerned are optimally integrated. This growth endeavour will be systematically facilitated by the strategic partnership already in place between Siemens and Kuka. At the celebration to mark the delivery of the 500,000th Siemens motor to Kuka, the partnership between their two companies was therefore one of the main topics of conversation between Manfred Gundel, CEO of Kuka Roboter GbmH, and Dr. Robert Neuhauser, CEO of the Motion Control Systems Business Unit at Siemens.

As Siemens representative Neuhauser emphasized at this celebratory event at the Siemens motor factory, „Siemens and Kuka Roboter GmbH are not only seriously engaged in a strategic business partnership, we are also in close contact as suppliers. We at Siemens are pleased that we have been able to cooperate successfully with Kuka in so many fields of business and would like to thank the company for the trust it has placed in us.“

Gundel, reiterated the importance of the successful relationship between the two companies: „Our cooperation venture with Siemens is based on a spirit of partnership.
Both as a customer and as a business partner we acknowledge that Siemens is always ready to commit both enthusiasm and expertise to our partnership. We really appreciate this.“

Both companies agree that precision-engineered robot control has a very promising future. As Neuhauser explained: „Siemens has tremendous know-how in the field of control technology that can undoubtedly be put to good use in the field of robotics. Innovations here could open up new business opportunities in various industries for both Siemens and Kuka“. In addition to loading and unloading machine tools, in future these mechanical assistants will be able to perform machining steps such as polishing, deburring, drilling and milling. This expanded functionality is opening up new areas of application in industries where robots are already in  use today, for example the automotive, plastics processing, aerospace and power industries.

The industrial robot vendor Kuka Roboter GmbH is part of the Kuka Aktiengesellschaft based in Augsburg, Germany. Kuka AG, which also operates a second business unit Systems specializing in the design and construction of automated installations, currently employs a total workforce of 7,500 and generates a total annual
revenue of € 1.7 billion.