Founded in 1997, Inform acquired ROBOTECH in 2021. As a leader in China's logistics equipment industry and a world-renowned equipment brand, what new opportunities will be brought to the transformation and upgrading of China's intelligent logistics under the strong combination?

The combination of Inform and ROBOTECH is strong

In September 2021, China's securities market was not shocked, but an announcement on the 29th caused a heated discussion in China's logistics equipment market - Nanjing Inform Storage Equipment Co.,LTD (full text abbreviation: Inform) acquired 100% equity of ROBOTECH Technologies Automation (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (full text abbreviation: Roberttech) in the form of a wholly-owned company.

In this regard, Yang Tao, general manager of Inform Shelf Sales Center, explained that Inform, which has a history of nearly 30 years, adheres to the positioning of "core logistics equipment supplier" in the development process of taking shelf as the starting point, and continuously develops products and subsystems such as shelves and shuttle systems. "ROBOTECH has an international reputation for its expertise and products in the field of stacker cranes, creating great value for many customers at home and abroad." Yang Tao said, "The acquisition of ROBOTECH is a very critical step for the development of Inform. ”

The integration and common development of the two sides is the primary goal

Naturally, ROBOTECH has also undergone tremendous changes, which Yang Xianyong, deputy director of ROBOTECH's pre-sales technology center, summarized as follows. First, the integration and common development of Inform and ROBOTECH are also major development matters of the two companies after the acquisition, which is mainly reflected in the integration of corporate culture and business. "The integration of corporate culture is a long process, which requires both parties to share and promote the successful experience accumulated in the development process of their respective enterprises, and both sides learn from each other's strengths. The integration of business is mainly the connection of products, sales and services, and the complementarity of resources and common development. Yang Xianyong explained.

Vigorously develop overseas business

Second, vigorously developing overseas business has become one of the main strategic directions of Inform, at present, overseas, Inform Storage's Thailand factory has been put into operation and the production capacity is gradually increasing, and a new subsidiary has been established in the United States, and ROBOTECH has set up subsidiaries or offices in Southeast Asia and Europe. Through these actions,Inform Storage has vigorously developed overseas business and opened up a larger market.

Adhere to the policy of "reducing costs and increasing efficiency".

The third is the cultivation of the internal strength of the enterprise. Whether it is R&D and design, manufacturing, engineering delivery and other links, Inform Storage and ROBOTECH are actively promoting the policy of "reducing costs and increasing efficiency".

Market competition has become "white-hot"

The adoption of such a development strategy is closely related to the external environment faced by Inform Storage and ROBOTECH. Yang Xianyong said that in recent years, the market is moving towards "white heat" and "full competition", while the total customer demand is also growing, and customers have higher requirements for quality. "Intelligent, digital, and green are the directions that customers focus on." Yang Xianyong continued, "Therefore, we have also made certain breakthroughs in new technologies, such as the V-POS system released during CeMAT ASIA 2024, which is to install 'eyes' on the stacker, through the 'brain' calculation in the background, self-learning and self-adjustment, so that the stacker crane takes an important step towards 'intelligence'." ”

Yang Tao further explained the development process of China's logistics equipment technology from the context of the development of industry demand. Among them, the demand of different industries such as e-commerce express delivery, food cold chain, photovoltaic, lithium battery in different periods has promoted the development of China's intelligent logistics equipment, and also made more intelligent logistics equipment have a place to use. In this process, Inform Storage has also developed dense storage systems such as box shuttle system, child and mother shuttle, and pallet four-way shuttle system.

With the "material box" as the link, the intelligent warehousing solution was jointly exhibited

"Gazelle" model and V-POS stacker crane visual inspection system

Therefore, at CeMAT ASIA 2024, Inform Storage and ROBOTECH jointly exhibited for the first time, showcasing the latest products and solutions of systematic intelligent warehousing with "bins" as a link. According to Yang Xianyong, ROBOTECH exhibited the "Gazelle" model and the V-POS stacker crane visual inspection system. Among them, the "Gazelle" model is a model newly developed by ROBOTECH according to market demand for container goods, which is lightweight and standardized compared with the previous generation of "Zebra" model. "The Gazelle model is mainly suitable for light load bin models, which can be applied to scenarios where the requirements for the running cycle are not too high, and has been successfully applied in the tire industry." Yang Xianyong added.

At the same time, in view of the common pain points in the operation process of intelligent vertical warehouse, such as shelf sinking caused by foundation settlement, beam deformation after long-term operation, position deviation of goods, and difficulty in inventory of high-bay warehouses, ROBOTECH has developed the latest V-POS stacker visual inspection system, which adopts ROBOTECH self-developed binocular vision camera, uses 940nm infrared light to depict the outline of the shelf and cargo location, and combines the self-developed depth algorithm to allow the machine to self-compensate, adjust or alarm prompt.

EMS shuttle system

At a glance, you can see that the "Gazelle" is rapidly accessing the bins, and the boxes taken out are transported out of the warehouse by the EMS shuttle system of Inform Storage. According to Yang Tao, the EMS shuttle is a key product of Inform Storage, as an aerial suspension transportation system, the system adopts advanced drive control technology, runs fast and stable, has the functions of walking/lifting control, multi-vehicle intelligent obstacle avoidance and following, intelligent operation and maintenance, etc., and can complete automated and intelligent material handling tasks in the warehouse or production line.

Box-type four-way shuttle system

After the EMS trolley transports the box to the other end of the exhibition area, it is completed by the box-type four-way shuttle system, which is used to realize the warehousing operation of the box or carton. The precise telescopic finger grabber is used to take out the bin and carry it to the designated exit position, while the bin at the entrance position can be stored in the designated location. Achieve higher efficiency with faster commutation speeds.

Loft shuttle system

At the other end of the shelf is the unique star product of Inform Storage, the attic shuttle. The product uses a telescopic clamping cargo storage and retrieval device that moves up and down to realize the storage and retrieval operations of different layers; It is more suitable for warehouses with low requirements for inbound and outbound efficiency, and is an economical choice for storage, picking and replenishment of many varieties of small goods. Yang Tao added: "The advantage of loft RGV is that it is more economical to build than a miniload system in the same storage location, and it is suitable for application scenarios with low floor heights. In addition, Inform Storage can design and implement customized solutions according to the actual needs of customers in terms of storage depth and container size. ”

Pallet four-way shuttle system

In addition, Inform storage also exhibited a palletized four-way shuttle system. The product is characterized by the use of a mechanical jacking mechanism. The horizontal movement and access of goods in the shelves are completed by only one pallet four-way shuttle, and the degree of automation of the system is greatly improved by the hoist layer change, which is the latest generation of intelligent handling equipment for pallet intensive storage solutions. The equipment can be perfectly applied to many industries and scenarios such as medical, cold chain, new energy, and food.

Professional service capabilities and high-level manufacturing capabilities escort brand value

Of course, the reason why Inform Storage and ROBOTECH have been able to win the trust of many customers is not only the high quality of products and solutions, but also the professional service ability and high-level manufacturing ability of the team.

Professional and perfect pre-sales, delivery and after-sales team

Yang Xianyong said that the two companies have a complete and professional team, which can provide customers with perfect services throughout the project. Taking pre-sales as an example, as one of the most important parts of the whole project landing process, the quality of the pre-sales design scheme directly determines whether the project can be successful, so it puts forward high requirements for the comprehensive quality of pre-sales personnel. Yang Xianyong proudly said: "At present, the pre-sales team of ROBOTECH, the old, middle and young echelons are reasonable, and the one-to-one training of mentorship and apprenticeship system has not only a team of experts with more than 40 years of work experience, but also the backbone of the company who has worked diligently for more than 10 years, as well as a group of young forces who graduated from the logistics major; In addition, in addition to personnel, the institutionalization of pre-sales work is also very important, which must be both orderly and flexible. ”

Of course, in addition to pre-sales, project delivery and after-sales are also crucial, and the three complement each other, and Inform Storage and ROBOTECH provide customers with the best quality service.

The core advantages of precipitation equipment manufacturing

Yang Tao said that in the course of years of development, Inform Storage has established a technology-oriented concept and precipitated its core advantages in equipment manufacturing. Taking shelf products as an example, with the development of automation equipment technology, the requirements for shelves are becoming more and more complex, such as high precision, easy installation, lightweight, high load, etc., while also taking into account the cost performance of products. To this end, Inform Storage has continuously improved its manufacturing capacity and optimized its manufacturing system, including the introduction of advanced automated production lines and laser welding equipment, so as to meet customers' complex and refined requirements for shelf products.

Provide customers with solutions that exceed expectations

Talking about the future, Yang Xianyong said that ROBOTECH has been committed to pioneering and developing in the direction of digitalization and intelligence, and the V-POS system released this time is the result of research and development in the past two years. He also believes that in the future, warehousing and logistics will definitely make greater progress in digitalization and intelligence.

"First of all, the logistics equipment industry will continue to update and iterate in terms of hardware, and the hardware equipment suitable for subdivision vertical fields in the future is more promising, such as semiconductors, medicine and other fields of 'small and beautiful' equipment; At present, ROBOTECH has been hoarding strength in these aspects, combining these new technologies with hardware equipment, and applying them to the logistics equipment industry to provide customers with solutions that exceed expectations. Yang Xianyong finally said.