Decentralised Drives in Industry 4.0
Bosch Rexroth Acquires Elmo Motion Control
Bosch Rexroth is to acquire motion control specialist Elmo Motion Control, based in Petach Tikva near Tel Aviv, and thereby expand its factory automation business. The two companies have now signed an agreement to this effect.
- High-end controllers and servo drives from Elmo complement Bosch Rexroth portfolio
- Elmo technologies enable distributed drives for general and mobile automation, robotics and the semiconductor industry
Elmo develops and manufactures high-end electric servo drives and drive controllers to complement Bosch Rexroth's product portfolio around the "ctrlX Automation" automation platform. The company employs around 330 people. Its products are particularly suitable for the semiconductor industry, electronics manufacturing, electrical industry, robotics, medical technology, automated warehousing, packaging and food industry as well as for automated guided vehicles (AGVs). Elmo was founded in 1988 as a private company based in Petach Tikva near Tel Aviv. In addition to its main site, Elmo also operates a manufacturing site in Poland.
The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. The transaction is subject to antitrust approvals. Elmo is to continue as an Israeli company with local management and with its current workforce.
"Factory automation is a clear focus area at Bosch Rexroth, and we are strengthening our portfolio both organically through the development of innovative products such as ctrlX Automation and through suitable acquisitions such as Elmo," said Thomas Fechner, head of the Automation and Electrification Solutions product division at Bosch Rexroth. "With Elmo's technology, it is possible to integrate drives the size of a smartphone into robots or autonomous transport vehicles, for example. Technologies from Elmo thus open up new fields of application that involve special technical challenges, such as autonomous transport vehicles, service robotics or the decentralised arrangement of drives in machines."
Bosch Rexroth had already acquired a majority stake in Kassow Robots in spring 2022. The Danish company, which has around 25 associates, produces collaborative robots (cobots) that can be used in a variety of ways in industrial manufacturing. The seven-axis cobots offer a high payload and reach and can also work in confined spaces.
