KUKA

The company was founded in 1898 by Johann Josef Keller and Jacob Knappich

The company was founded in 1898 in Augsburg, Germany, by Johann Josef Keller and Jacob Knappich. The acetylene factory Augsburg was founded in 1898 by Johann Josef Keller and Jakob Knappich for the production of low-cost domestic and municipal lighting, household appliances and automobile headlights. In 1905, the production was extended to the innovative autonomous welding equipment. After the First World War, Keller and Knappich resumed production of safety-, manual- and power-winches and began the manufacturing of large containers. As a result, the Bayerische Kesselwagen GmbH was formed in 1922. The new company was responsible for the development and production of superstructures for municipal vehicles (street cleaning machines, sewage trucks, garbage trucks). In 1927, this business division presented the first large garbage truck. The name KUKA came into being in the same year through the company’s name at that time “Keller und Knappich Augsburg”.

Keller & Knappich GmbH merged with part of Industrie-Werke Karlsruhe AG to become Industrie-Werke Karlsruhe Augsburg Aktiengesellschaft, eventually KUKA (Keller und Knappich Augsburg) for short.

The development and manufacture of spot welding equipment began in 1936. Three years later, KUKA already had more than 1,000 employees. After the major destruction of the company during the Second World War in 1945, KUKA started manufacturing welding machines and other small appliances again. With new products such as the double-cylinder circular knitting machine and the portable typewriter "Princess", KUKA introduced new industrial fields and gained independence from the supply sector.

In 1956, KUKA manufactured the first automatic welding system for refrigerators and washing machines and supplied the first multi-spot welding line to Volkswagen AG. Ten years later, the first friction welding machine went into production.

In 1967, the arc welding method was applied for the first time at KUKA. In 1971, the delivery of the first robotic welding system for the S-Class took place. A year later, the magnetic arc-welding machine came to the market.

In 1973, KUKA created its own industrial robot FAMULUS.[7][8] At that time, the company belonged to the Quandt group.

In 1978, beginning with the IR 601/60, robot production went into mass-production.

In 1980, the Quandt family withdrew and a publicly owned firm was established. In 1981, KUKA’s main activities were grouped into three independent companies: the KUKA Schweissanlagen und Roboter GmbH, the KUKA Umwelttechnik GmbH and the KUKA Wehrtechnik GmbH, which was re-sold to Rheinmetall in 1999. Towards the end of 1982, the LSW Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Bremen became a subsidiary of KUKA.

In 1993, the first laser-roof-seam welding systems were manufactured. These welding systems were then further expanded to adhesive bonding and sealing technologies in the following year. Around the same time, KUKA took over the tools & equipment manufacturers Schwarzenberg GmbH and expanded its business to China and the USA in the following years.

In 1995, the company was split into KUKA Robotics Corporation and KUKA Schweißanlagen (now KUKA Systems), now both subsidiaries of KUKA AG. The company is a member of the Robotics Industries Association (RIA), of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and the German engineering association VDMA. Today, KUKA concentrates on solutions for the automation of industrial manufacturing processes.

In 1996, KUKA Schweissanlagen GmbH became an independent company and, two years later, the market leader among European welding equipment manufacturers. The supply of the first pressing tools for automobile side-walls made of high-strength steel began in 2002. The company launched the KUKA RoboScan with remote laser welding head in 2003. Since 2006, KUKA Systems is operating its own bodyshell factory in Toledo, America and produces the bodywork for the Jeep Wrangler by Chrysler.

In the course of internationalization and expansion of business units and technologies such as reshaping, tooling, bonding, sealing, etc., KUKA Schweissanlagen GmbH became KUKA Systems GmbH in 2007. In 2010, KUKA presented a newly developed standardized cell concept for welding solutions, KUKA flexibleCUBE.

In the automation sector, KUKA Systems offers standard and customized solutions for industrial production automation; joining technologies and component handling are amongst their activity. The technologies are tested and the production processes are fully optimized prior to the development. In addition, KUKA Systems offers engineering and individual counseling, so that customized/special production solutions can be planned and optimized in co-operation with the customer.[9]

In June 2016, Midea Group offered to buy Kuka for about €4.5 billion ($5 billion). Midea completed the takeover bid in January 2017 by taking 74.55% voting stake in the company.[10]

In late 2017 Kuka announced that 250 employees of KUKA Systems will be terminated. The management named trouble with projects as a reason. .[11]

Most robots are finished in "KUKA Orange" (the official corporate color) or black.

The company is headquartered in Augsburg, Germany. As of December 2014, KUKA employed more than 13,000 workers.[12] While previously emphasizing customers in the automotive industry, the company has since expanded to other industries. It has 5 divisions:[13]

• Systems
• Robotics
• Swisslog Logistics Automation
• Swisslog Healthcare
• China

1971 – Europe's first welding transfer line built for Daimler-Benz.

1973 – The world's first industrial robot with six electromechanically driven axes, known as FAMULUS.

1976 – IR 6/60 – An utterly new robot type with six electromechanically driven axes and an offset wrist.

1989 – A new generation of industrial robots is developed – brushless drive motors for a low maintenance and a higher technical availability.

2004 - The first Cobot KUKA LBR 3 is released. This computer controlled lightweight robot is able to interact directly with humans without safety fences and was the result of a collaboration with the German Aerospace Center institute since 1995.[14]

2007 – KUKA Titan – at the time, the biggest and strongest industrial robot with six axes, entered into the Guinness Book of World Records.[15]

2010 – As the only robot family, the robot series KR QUANTEC completely covers the load range of 90 up to 300 kg with a reach of up to 3100 mm for the first time.

2012 – The new small robot series KR AGILUS is launched.

2014 – With a video released in March, the company gained some recognition with the general public. The video supposedly teased their new robot, specialized in Table Tennis and shows a match against Timo Boll, a German professional. It is however not a real match but a commercial with heavy CGI and the video received strong criticism from the table tennis community. The video has been viewed over 10 million times on YouTube and has won numerous awards.[16]

2017 - KUKA robots are heavily featured in a music video[17] by artist Nigel Stanford

In 2001, KUKA formed a partnership with RoboCoaster Ltd to develop the world's first passenger-carrying industrial robot. The ride uses roller coaster-style seats attached to robotic arms and provides a roller coaster-like motion sequence through a series of programmable maneuvers. Riders themselves can also program the motions of their ride. A second generation system, the RoboCoaster G2, was deployed at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Florida in 2010, in conjunction with Dynamic Structures. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey's seats are mounted on robotic arms, which are in turn mounted on a track allowing the arms to travel through the attraction while performing their movements in synchronization with the ride's show elements (animated props, projection surfaces, etc.).[23][24][25][26]

KUKA's partnership with RoboCoaster has also seen KUKA robots appear in some Hollywood films. In the James Bond film Die Another Day, in a scene depicting an ice palace in Iceland, NSA agent Jinx, played by Halle Berry, is threatened by laser-wielding robots. In the Ron Howard film The Da Vinci Code, a KUKA robot hands Tom Hanks’ character Robert Langdon a container containing a cryptex.

In 2007, KUKA introduced a simulator, based on the Robocoaster.[27] RoboCoaster Ltd does not market this product. An installation of this version is The Sum Of All Thrills ride at EPCOT in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

In recent years, KUKA robotic arms can be found on Royal Caribbean cruise liners at their bionic bars. The user selects their desired drink or creates a custom one on a tablet interface. The robotic arms then use an array of spirits, mixers and liqueurs to accurately and precisely craft the desired cocktail.

• 
  1898 Company founded by Johann Josef Keller and Jacob Knappich
• 
  1949 an Augsburg Princess
• 
  1920 Success in large container construction
• 
  1931 Resistance Welding
• 
  1934 KdF Wagen
• 
  1955 Large container manufacture
• 
  1965 German-American tank program at KUKA
• 
  1972 Construction of the first Magnet-arc welding machine
• 
  1974 Seam welding

• Automation
• KUKA Robot Language
• Robotics

• Most of the content of this article comes from the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article.
• Wiki CAEX page
• Wiki Georgia Institute of Technology page

Wikimedia Commons has media related to KUKA Systems.

• Official website
• KUKA Robotics Corp. (USA)
• KUKA LBR iiwa (Lightweight Cobot, intelligent industrial work assistant
• (YouTube)
• Documents and clippings about KUKA in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
• KUKA Systems GmbH
• KUKA Systems History