Amazon.
com Inc. mentioned Friday it has acquired a Belgian firm that designs expertise to handle the circulate of robots by warehouses, the e-commerce large’s newest funding in instruments to automate its logistics community.
The firm will add D. Cloostermans–Huwaert NV to the Amazon Robotics division it launched in 2012 with the acquisition of Kiva Systems Inc.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Cloostermans, which has about 200 workers, was based in 1884 as a producer of equipment for textiles producers. It has been refashioned as a specialist in engineering and automation. The firm designs and makes warehouse expertise Amazon mentioned it already makes use of to maneuver and stack heavy pallets and totes and to bundle merchandise for supply.
Amazon mentioned it has been working with Cloostermans since 2019 and that it plans to make use of the corporate’s expertise to assist robots function alongside its warehouse workers, together with to enhance employee security and to scale back packaging waste.
“Amazon’s investments in robotics and technology are supporting how we build a better and safer workplace for our employees and deliver for our customers,” Ian Simpson, vp of world robotics at Amazon, mentioned in an organization weblog put up.
Amazon mentioned it has deployed greater than 520,000 robots in its warehouses for the reason that Kiva acquisition. The firm mentioned it lately added its first absolutely autonomous cell robotic, which might maneuver round workers and doesn’t have to be restricted to sure areas of a warehouse.
The acquisition comes as Amazon is pausing its aggressive enlargement of its U.S. logistics community. The firm successfully doubled the dimensions of its supply operations over about two years as pandemic-driven demand fueled a increase in e-commerce orders.
Online demand has extra lately receded as buyers have returned to shops and inflation has dented retail gross sales.
Write to Liz Young at [email protected]
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Appeared within the September 10, 2022, print version as ‘E-Commerce Giant Buys Robotics Firm.’
Source: www.wsj.com”