ODENSE, Denmark – Nord Modules this week announced it would enter the U.S. market with a new series of flexible, material-moving modules that “efficiently connect production lines and internal logistics using autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).

The company said its safe, ready-to-use, and industrial-quality modules enhance automated heavy payload transportation between production lines and storage systems, and also increase the flexibility of these lines by enabling companies to use the same AMR for multiple tasks. With the system, workers are freed from load-and-lift activity to more valuable ones, which saves time, money, and reduces the risk of injuries, the company said in a statement.

“As companies recognize the advantages of mobile robots – automating monotonous, repetitive, and injury-prone manual material transportation – they look for new ways to applications to reduce costs and increase productivity,” said Bruno Hansen, the founder and CEO of Nord Modules, Hansen, who was one of the co-founders of Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), said customers can create fully automated systems with materials that flow effortlessly from production lines to the AMR to the warehouse. “And standard, off-the-shelf modules make it easy to update lines and flexibly redeploy these mobile platforms for even greater use and faster ROI.”

The company’s product line includes the Top Mover, which mounts on MiR100 and MiR200 robots to deliver materials two and from Nord Modules’ gates, which are installed at production lines, storage systems, or conveyors. Integrated software and an intelligent touchscreen let users adapt the system for specialized work processes, the company said.

Three types of modules

Gate modules are provided in three types:

• Solid Gate (SG), a basic standard module that can receive or hold items, serving as a flexible pickup point for AMRs.
• Wheel Gate (WG), an integrated stop function and manually controlled wheels that enable the mobile robot to push items to a pickup point or further into production.
• Roll Gate (RG), an integrated motor that creates a fully automated gate with rolls that can receive and deliver objects from a 90-degree angle.

The company said its modules are available in either Flex or Basic series. The five-finger Flex series is aimed at customers looking to handle different load sizes within their environment, while the three-finger Basic series “delivers a cost-effective option for consistently bigger load sizes.”

“With multiple industries embracing the increased automation of AMRs, manufacturers are beginning to demand the additional functionality from value-add providers like Nord Modules that build top modules for our MiR fleet to enable multiple applications within a single facility,” said Ed Mullen, VP of sales, Americas, MiR. “These flexible customizations are key differentiators for MiR and its integrators. We welcome Nord Modules into our partner ecosystem and look forward to how more of our customers will be able to implement our AMRs straight out of the box, speeding the overall integration process for plant needs.”

The company said Hermitage Automation would be the first distributor of Nord Modules in the U.S. market, with the company expecting to grow its distribution network extensively within the next months. The company said Hansen and Kenneth B. Henriksen, Nord Modules’ new chief commercial officer, will attend the Automate 2019 show in Chicago in April.