Equipment

Robotics specialist RTS Flexible Systems will use a new office that it is opening in Germany with KS Automation, the supplier of motion control, vision and sensing technologies, as a springboard for its expansion into Europe.

Manchester-based RTS, which supplies vision-guided pick and place robots to the food, medical and healthcare and FMCG sectors, will work with KS Automation from offices in Roding, near Regensburg in Germany.

RTS Flexible Systems' managing director David Bradford said this was the firm's first venture outside the UK and he expected 10 people would work in the German office.

The firm will integrate its robots with KS Automation's automation and control systems.

"KS Automation's engineers will use their local knowledge to help us with service and support for installations. Their skills complement ours," he said.

KS Automation already has offices in Roding and Dublin, and the new partnership will be based on the same site in Germany. The firm said it had experienced "rapid success" in designing bespoke systems for the electronics, automotive, medical and building automation sectors in Germany over the past seven years.

Bradford said RTS had a good reputation in the UK baking industry and felt there were "opportunities for end-of-line solutions" for the packaging of bread, pancakes and part-baked bread in the German market.

The firm already has some installations in the German pharmaceutical industry through sister company RTS Life Science.

"I expect new orders will come from markets where we've already had success in the UK, such as the bakery and dairy sectors," added Bradford.