Yaskawa Motoman by the numbers
35,000 - Robots installed in North and South America
175 - Distinct robot styles in product line
350 - Employees in the Dayton area
Staff Writer Dave Larsen keeps you informed on local high-tech companies. You can reach him at dlarsen@coxohio.com
Yaskawa Motoman has introduced a new robot for biomedical applications that could help the Miamisburg-based global robotics manufacturer to further expand beyond its traditional industrial base into the health care sector, company officials said.
The new MH3BM (BioMedical) robot is designed to handle specimen processing, drug dispensing and medical research applications.
“We see health care as increasing in terms of the market size in general, but also we are looking at how to move beyond and grow well beyond the manufacturing floor,” said Tim DeRosett, Motoman’s director of strategic initiatives. The company is looking at the health care and biomedical markets because of the aging populations in the U.S., Europe and Japan, he said.
The global market for medical robotics was estimated to be $792 million in 2011 and is expected to reach $1.3 billion by 2016, according to a report by Transparency Market Research.
Motoman has been active in the health care sector for eight to 10 years, producing robots for clinical laboratory applications and medical device assembly, handling and packaging, DeRosett said.
Motoman Robotics, a division of Yaskawa America, provides robots for the automotive manufacturing, heavy equipment construction, and materials handling and packaging sectors. The company has more than 350 employees in the Dayton area, officials said.
The robot also has an ISO 5 clean room rating, which means no particles will escape the robot and contaminate the environment, he said.
The biomedical robot is manufactured by Motoman’s parent company, Yaskawa Electric Corp. of Japan. The Miamisburg-based division will distribute the robot in North and South America, DeRosett said. He declined to disclose the robot’s cost.
More than 1,050 medical robots were sold worldwide in 2011, a 13 percent increase from the previous year, according to the International Federation of Robotics. Medical robots represented 6 percent of total sales for professional service robots in 2011, the federation said.
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