TAL Manufacturing Solutions, a fully-owned arm of Tata Motors, has launched the country's first locally designed and manufactured industrial robot, the Brabo, which can increase productivity by up to 30 per cent.
The Brabo are designed to complement human workforce and perform repetitive, high volume, dangerous and time consuming tasks, and thus be deployed across industries.
The robots have payloads of 2 kg and 10 kg, and are priced at Rs 5 lakh (for the 2-kg one) and Rs 7 lakh for the 10 kg one.
Amit Bhingurde, Chief Operations Officer of TAL said, “We had earlier supplied 55 robots to manufacturers and based on the feedback received, we can say that Brabo can improve efficiency level by up to 25-30 per cent.”
In a tête-à-tête with BW Businessworld, Bhingurde said there is a growing demand for these robots, especially in SMEs as it is very difficult to find people can do dull and dirty jobs.
He said the Brabo complies with essential requirements relevant to European health, safety and environmental legislation, permitting export of the robot to customers in Europe
“The robot fits in there very much,” said Bhingurde, adding that the robot can repeatedly deliver quality and speed, a quality which is not found in humans.
He, however, said that the robot doesn’t pose any threat to human jobs.
“We require people to monitor and operate these things. It will only create jobs in future,” he said.
At present, Brabo has a manufacturing capacity of 3,000 units which can be doubled if they go for two-shifts.
The company claims that the Brabo can be used across different sectors. Developed over a period of 2.5 years and at a cost of Rs 10-15 crore, Brabo has some big names as its customers like Mahindra & Mahindra, Diebold, CPG Industries, Hydromatik, SGK Industries, BITS Dubai Campus, Suparna Plastics, Micromax Systems.
The company formed a strategic partnership with Italy’s RTA Motion Control Systems to source motors and drives for its Brabo robot.
The product last week received the CE certification, which allows its export to Europe. Apart from Europe, the company said it is getting enquiries from Korea and the home market for the product.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld