OAL to build new robotics production facility

OAL is building a new state of the art facility to support its April Robotics Systems in Peterborough, UK. The new facility will provide significant productivity improvements, while supporting food manufacturers seeking to avoid rising costs in the UK and Europe.

529,800 people globally are associated with the task of weighing dry “micro” ingredients. The April Robotics Weighing System automates this task and when linked with April Logistics, fully automates the ingredient and material management within factories.

The OAL team is rapidly accelerating the adoption of robots in food manufacturing as they focus on increasing productivity and efficiency in food factories by automating manual handling tasks.

Harry Norman, owner and managing director at OAL, explains, “We’re committed to eliminating manual handling in the front end of food processing, and the new April facility gives our team a great space to develop and demonstrate what that means for food manufacturers. We have a strong reputation for building large scale material handling projects, and advanced manufacturing software and the April developments complement these thriving parts of the business.”

OAL has invested around £572,000 developing April robotics technologies to date through internal investment and various government grant schemes. In 2017-18 a further £1.6 million investment will be provided at which point OAL intends to consider external investors to help drive a target sales pipeline of £26m annual sales for April robotics.

OAL will recruit up to 55 engineers by year 2020 to support the development and roll out of April robotics. As experience in these technologies is limited, OAL is also electing to take students with no prior knowledge and put them through a training programme.

Food manufacturers will have a chance to learn more and see demonstrations at the factory opening on 18 January 2018. The opening will coincide with the Food Manufacturing 2030 Conference which challenges food manufacturers to think and discuss how food production will change over the next decade.

Sign up for the event: http://april.oalgroup.com/events/food-manufacturing-2030

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