Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Formic, a robotics-as-a-service provider, has been named the Most Innovative Company in the Robotics category by Fast Company. The award recognizes Formic's ability to provide cutting-edge technology solutions to industrial manufacturers and help them stay ahead of the competition. Formic's platform provides a flexible and scalable robotics solution to small and mid-sized manufacturing businesses. The company's innovative approach to robotics...
Read MoreTuesday, November 1, 2022
Robotics companies have joined other industries in feeling the economy’s pain, but Formic, with its robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) platform, is an outlier. The company, which rents out robots for $8 to $30 an hour, is accelerating automation adoption for US manufacturers. Formic recently reported increasing its customer count 70% QoQ following a $26.5 million Series A round in January. It also increased its headcount 35%, and brought on Amazon alum Karl...
Read MoreTuesday, September 6, 2022
Considering the rising competition from low-wage manufacturers offshore and the dearth of job candidates willing and able to work with their hands, one would assume that American manufacturers are in a rush to automate their production lines. Not quite, as the founders of Formic Technologies in Chicago can tell you. Misa Ilkhechi and Saman Farid started Formic two years ago...
Read MoreThursday, March 31, 2022
Society has long worried that the widespread adoption of robots will displace workers and eliminate jobs. But rather than fearing the arrival of automatons, Shakerria Grier, a 27-year-old quality auditor at Georgia-based Thomson Plastics Inc., is relieved to get the help. In late 2020, Thomson began installing robots that take plastic parts, such as fenders for ATVs or covers for lawn...
Read MoreFriday, February 4, 2022
DCL logistics, like so many American firms, had a problem last year. Its business, fulfilling orders of goods sold online, faced surging demand. But competition for warehouse workers was fierce, wages were rising and staff turnover was high. So dcl made two changes. It bought robots to pick items off shelves and place them in boxes. And it reduced its reliance on part-time...
Read MoreTuesday, January 18, 2022
POLAR MANUFACTURING has been making metal hinges, locks, and brackets in south Chicago for more than 100 years. Some of the company’s metal presses—hulking great machines that loom over a worker—date from the 1950s. Last year, to meet rising demand amid a shortage of workers, Polar hired its first robot employee. The robot arm performs a simple, repetitive job: lifting a piece of...
Read MoreTuesday, October 12, 2021
Misa Ilkhechi has seen his share of idle welding robots. With stints in sales and engineering at companies like Bosch and, most recently, Universal Robots, Ilkhechi would visit various metal fabrication facilities, see a busy welding department, and yet also see a robot welding cell gathering dust. Sometimes the company couldn’t find time to train someone to run it. Other...
Read MoreThursday, August 26, 2021
LIVERMORE, Calif., Aug 26 (Reuters) - Silicon Valley has a new pitch to persuade small companies to automate: rent-a-robot. Better technology and the need to pay higher wages to humans have produced a surge in sales of robots to big companies all across America. But few of these automatons are making it into smaller factories, which are wary of big...
Read More
