Wittmann Automation will transfer production of single-axis robots from Hungary

Austrian robotics and ancillary equipment maker Wittmann Automation is to start up a new $6m (E7.7m) Chinese factory early next year.

The 5,000 sq metre plant in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, is nearly complete and by February will be producing the first models under the company’s Asian strategy (PRW 10 December 2003). It will initially employ some 50 people and produce three lines covering one- and three-axis robots as well as the basic European type of mould temperature controller.

Managing director Werner Wittmann told PRW.com during K2004 that the pneumatic 7-series single-axis robots, which are currently made in the company’s Hungarian plant, “will be made parallel in Hungary and China for a while” before the Chinese plant takes over the entire production of this type of robot – which is typically used for simpler part removal and secondary operations.

Wittmann says it is the first European producer to establish a manufacturing facility for robot manufacture to serve the huge Chinese market. Initially, the focus will be on western moulders establishing operations in the country, but the company will also target local firms in due course.