FAGOR ARRASATE ACQUIRES INTEREST IN TECH COMPANY RIBINERF

Fagor Arrasate, a member of the MONDRAGON corporation specialising in the development of capital goods for shaping and processing metallic and composite materials, plans to scale up its strategy to be a global benchmark in manufacturing process automation by acquiring an interest in the share capital of Ribinerf, a tech company that specialises in industrial robotics, 3D vision and artificial intelligence for automating the processes involved in quality controlling, classifying, picking and racking parts.

With the acquisition of a 70% interest in Ribinerf, Fagor Arrasate is committing to reinforcing its technological capabilities associated to the automation of the manufacturing processes. “This operation is fully aligned with our innovation strategy, which strives to offer increasingly smart, flexible and productive automation solutions,” says Unai López Moñux, general manager of Fagor Arrasate. The general manager of the Mondragón-based company also points out that “this acquisition will provide Fagor Arrasate with state-of-the-art technology for automating quality control, picking and racking processes, which are critical for our clients in the automotive sector, electrical appliances and metalworking”.

Specifically, Fagor Arrasate will be able to avail of Ribinerf's capabilities and know-how, which focus on creating standardised solutions that resolve non-deterministic scenarios that have been impossible to automate until now. Ribinerf’s machines don't just perform the task, but rather, thanks to AI, they are capable of making decisions and resolving the incidents arising in variable production settings on their own, minimising line stoppage times and working with maximum performance, which allows clients to optimise and improve the competitiveness of their processes. A partnership that will enable Fagor Arrasate to offer solutions to meet its clients’ demands in the area of process automation and quality assurance.

“Automating low added-value processes that to date could only be done by humans is bringing solutions to problems that our clients encounter on a daily basis. Thanks to applying robotics, artificial intelligence and 3D vision, these solutions also mean substantial savings in costs associated to poor quality since the fault rate drops and client batch returns are prevented. Ribinerf enables us to build these types of solutions into our equipment,” says Unai López Moñux.

For his part, the co-founder of Ribinerf, Xabier Ribalta, considers that operating with Fagor Arrasate will enable its company access to new markets and clients.

“For us, Fagor Arrasate is a strategic partner that contributes soundness to our project and can aid in our international expansion. Ribinerf will be driven thanks to the hallmark of integrity, market share and penetration that Fagor Arrasate already has in the metal forming sector in the international markets where it operates,” says Ribalta