Comau presented its advanced solutions for the future of automation in a leading Italian exhibition

Pietro Ottavis, Extended Europe Country Cluster Leader

1. What was your experience at BIMU?

BI-MU is an important Italian tradeshow with an international appeal dedicated to the manufacturing industry of metal cutting and metal forming machine tools, robots, automation systems, digital and additive manufacturing, auxiliary and enabling technologies.  Comau’s participation was a natural choice. It allowed us to introduce our most advanced products to a targeted audience and it has been the perfect place to display  the world – starting with Italy – our ability to transform our business, our technology, and our approach to innovation.

We aimed to expand Comau’s collaboration network and show customers and visitors the innovative solutions which we have developed for a wide range of sectors. I’m referring to those where automation plays a long-established role, such as automotive, as well as the sectors in which automation is starting to gain ground with double-digit growth rates. Think of logistics, renewable energy, food, pharmaceuticals, and shipbuilding, just to give a few examples of markets in which we are already developing important projects.

2. Tell us about your production.

Comau is an Italian company, with over 50 years of experience and a leader in industrial automation at a global level. Our reference industry has been Automotive, yet over time, and particularly over the last few years, we have developed increasingly innovative solutions to bring the benefits of automation to new sectors. Furthermore, thanks to the wealth of expertise gained in Automotive, which is one of the most challenging markets, we have become a leading automation player in diversified markets in a short period of time.

The real challenge over the years has been safeguarding Comau’s ability to renew itself, as the market, customers and the world around us have transformed. Comau is not the same company as it was 50 years ago, or even 5 years ago. Our transformation has required us to accept the challenge of innovation and to make it happen. This is a fundamental characteristic  that defines Comau.

In a nutshell, our portfolio includes products and systems for vehicle manufacturing, with a strong presence in e-mobility, advanced machining and robotics solutions, all of which are supported by innovative digital technologies. This is a very broad technological offering, developed to increase the quality, flexibility and speed of production processes, while providing companies with more efficient energy and resource management.

It is also worth mentioning that both our robots and some of the most innovative advanced automation solutions are designed and manufactured in Italy, at our innovation center in Grugliasco and in Bari and Pontedera (Pisa).

3. Coming back to your participation in the fair: can you give us some details of your exhibition (booths, products, technologies…)?

Before describing the products shown at BI.MU, I would like to focus on a very important point for us, which drives our technological development because it concerns our way of innovating.

Comau aims to create a new paradigm of advanced automation by following a human-centric approach, which places humans at the centre of a collaborative, safe and synergistic production environment. In this context, state-of-the-art software is the engine that drives the evolution of hardware and its transformation, which is necessary to respond to customer needs. This is the most effective way of explaining the transformation taking place in our company, i.e. integrating the output of our vision systems directly into the motion control of our robots, thus making the robot self-adaptive but also able to learn through the use of artificial intelligence to improve its performance.

Following this approach, at BI-MU, we presented  a wide range of products, some of which we will be showing for the first time, demonstrating our ability to reach new markets. We will be launching a world premiere of the new Comau SmartReach high-speed machining centre, perfect for machining large components and lightweight materials. Designed primarily for the automotive and aerospace industries, it can also be used in many other sectors. To facilitate welding and handling applications, we are presenting a new range of compact, high-speed, high-precision robots (S-Family), which are also distinguished by their typical red colour.

New additions include the next-generation TPX Robotic Teach Pendant control that helps operators program and guide robots in-line more easily and quickly. In the digital area, the new functionalities of our in.Grid platform for a more complete monitoring of industrial processes and our products will soon be on the market; one of the products of our MI.RA family of vision systems, MI.RA/Picker, for an automated picking solution with our collaborative robot Racer-5 Cobot, will also be on the market. Finally, our MATE-XT and MATE-XB exoskeletons for the upper and lower limbs has been  presented, which reduce muscular strain and increase the well-being of the worker and the quality of the activity performed.

4. Which sectors do you target most in your applications?

I would say that Comau essentially serves as a technology hub capable of designing innovative solutions that help facilitate industrial and new energy transformation. Our long experience in the automotive field, for example, enables us to cover all phases of the battery processing cycle, handling the assembly of any type of pack and module, as well as solutions to produce the cells themselves and next-generation electric motors. In the field of green energy, Comau is working to industrialize the production processes of electrolyzers, fuel cells and all the technologies required for the large-scale adoption of hydrogen, offering a proprietary portfolio of solutions capable of automating the key stages of its processing. In line with our commitment to manufacturing sustainability, Comau offers robot remanufacturing services so that their components can be reused and put back into production. This extends their life cycle and allows customers to manage their maintenance in the long term.

In the field of renewables, Comau’s patented Hyperflex system is a temporary mobile factory that can automatically handle all assembly stages of solar panels and blades on site, improving production efficiency and operator safety. Visitors at BI-MU has also the opportunity  to see a fully automated, high-speed brake disc coating system developed by Comau in collaboration with Prima Additive. By coating raw brake discs with resilient steel and composite materials, this solution significantly increases their service life and reduces emissions by up to 80 percent.

5. How do you see the current economic situation? What is your view on the development in 2024?

The outlook for industrial development differs depending on geographic areas and markets. Globally, from our point of view it is important to note that demand for automation continues to grow, particularly in sectors where these technologies have been gaining ground in recent years, such as logistics, shipbuilding, renewable energy and others.

Comau’s ability to flexibly adapt to different market dynamics, as a result of our both highly diversified product portfolio and thanks to expertise spanning different sectors and applications, enables us to respond effectively to the needs of a complex production system in constant transformation.