Read Time: 90 Seconds
Word Count: 401 Words
Key Take Away: A new venture takes hold of the American CNC machine tending market.
What started off as a visionary side project by Helmut De Roovere and his former college friend, Luc De Ceuster in 2007, has turned into a true success story in recent years. Up until 2010, Helmut De Roovere ran a job shop for turning and milling work in Belgium, when he realized things had to change drastically in order for his company to survive in a global economy. His job shop had seen order volumes decline and youngsters turn away from the CNC operator jobs. Rather than hoping for better times to come, Helmut – a mechanical engineer and entrepreneur – went back to his roots and partnered with his friend Luc De Ceuster to start developing a prototype of a flexible, compact, intelligent and fully standardized robotic automation in the garage of his parents’ home. After launching its prototype in 2010, the company quickly sold its first robots.
10 years later, RoboJob employs 60 people, has developed the most comprehensive product portfolio for automation small and medium sized batches and has installed over 1.000 robots all over the world. In 2020, it opened its newly built Technology Center in Lehrensteinsfeld, right in the heart of the German Manufacturing Industry. “The focus has always been Europe,” explains CEO Helmut De Roovere. “Nevertheless, we have installed our robots in over 30 countries in Europe, Asia, Australia and the US. In recent years, we have seen a big increase in requests from American companies. This led us to investigate possibilities of approaching the US market as well. And that is how we got in touch with Fusion OEM.”
Fusion OEM’s story is quite similar. Like Helmut De Roovere, founder and CEO Craig Zoberis has also been running a job shop for turning and milling work for many years. He also recognized the benefits of CNC Automation and started developing his own tending solutions for CNC turning and milling machines in order to increase productivity. “We have so much in common,” states Craig Zoberis, “it’s unbelievable. This seems a match made in heaven. We have been looking for a suitable partner to further grow the US market in CNC Automation, and actually came across a few RoboJob installations already. We were very much impressed by the technology, and now our paths have crossed again.”
Fusion OEM and RoboJob are now starting a partnership to jointly offer the RoboJob Turn- and Mill-Assist Series in the United States.
