Digitalisation continues to play a major role in shaping the future of the industry sector on the road towards Industry 4.0. And while increased energy efficiency, predictive maintenance and a lot size of one are all desirable outcomes, engineers understand that they are by far not the only challenges faced by industries around the world today. The team at Roxa Technologies GmbH, named Most Innovative Mechanical Engineering Technology Firm 2022 – Austria, in Acquisition International’s Global Excellence Awards, have thrived because they combine the latest technology with a detailed knowledge of various industry segments. We took a closer look to discover more.
As digitalisation takes the world by storm, more and more people see it as the default answer to any problem that may arise. The truth, however, is that the increasingly intelligent components that should ultimately make up Industry 4.0 are just one part of a complex puzzle for mechanical engineers.
The team at Roxa Technologies have been mastering precisely such challenges for a little over 20 years now. Their work is committed to creating solutions that cannot be bought off the shelf or found in a catalogue that caters to a broad customer base. Instead, Roxa Technologies provides its customers with simple, highly effective and light-weight special-purpose solutions that promise user-friendliness, require less space and also have a positive impact in terms of energy consumption. Simultaneously meeting or even addressing these requirements is difficult to achieve by means of conventional cranes or robots and is, in almost all cases, highly cost-inefficient.
A classic example of this is the team’s development of systems for handling relatively lightweight components across the shop floor. Crane construction, generally speaking, focuses on the movement of tonnes of equipment, but most loads in today’s industry amount to less than 500 kg. When customers turn to Roxa Technologies, they do so in the knowledge that the team is able to provide the best engineering solution and, starting with a digital twin, transform the virtual design into reality.
With such amazing technological resources at the fingertips of every individual today, it’s the industry-specific knowledge of how best to apply them that makes the Roxa Technologies team stand out. It is easy to be drawn in by the benefits of digitalisation and self-adapting production. The use of highly sophisticated, sensor-enhanced and smart components, however, will only lead to tangible benefits if the “foundation” is sound. Creative implementation from a team that understands the basics and can see what is required to get the best out of a situation, is what the Roxa Technologies team bring to the table each and every time.
What is clear is that technology itself is not the main priority to the team at Roxa Technologies, but the application of the right solutions in the right situation. With the team’s unique knowledge of mechanical engineering as a whole, they can import ideas and concepts across various industries to support their clients in another. The incredible flexibility of mechanical engineering means that form and function are always considered, feeding into the various designs that are developed by the team.
The constant drive to improve what is already there lies at the heart of Roxa Technologies. The team is always pushing to see if new approaches can provide a better way forward for their customers. Most tasks have a solution already built in – it’s what a design engineer brings to the table – but the team at Roxa Technologies stands apart because it is always looking for the best possible solution. And in many cases, less may actually be more, which is also underlined by the company’s drive to keep things simple.
There are many in the industry who would see the development of bespoke (custom-designed) solutions as a reason to bring production of every aspect of a solution in-house. Roxa Technologies, however, relies on competence, trust, and proven track records and has correspondingly outsourced the production of the various modules and components to a network comprising the best manufacturers. The actual construction of the machines designed by Roxa Technologies is handled by the company’s incredible partner Kostwein. The company, with its seat in Carinthia, Austria, is a leading world-class manufacturer that combines high performance and competency like no other.
This decision was arrived at so that the Roxa Technologies team could focus purely on engineering and commissioning. By doing this, and outsourcing construction, the team can combine their unique skillset with the capabilities and capacity of a partner committed to producing solutions of an equally high quality at all times. Because the Roxa Technologies team develop and sell special-purpose machines from the field of “half-robotics”, the decision to work in collaboration with fellow specialists in the field has brought all parties immense success.
The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed production to a crawl in many sectors, as businesses struggle to find resources no longer common. In some cases, electrical components simply cannot be procured at all. This lack of parts has impacted major suppliers as well as small ones. According to the award-winner, the answer to this challenge must be thinking outside of the box. Ingenuity is what the Roxa Technologies team excels at, and they know that there are numerous solutions for any technical task, they just have to be considered and applied with care. When the team at Roxa Technologies come up with their solutions for clients, the first thing they check is if components are available in order to develop a quick and efficient solution.
To some, this might seem like reinventing the wheel, but because the struggle to find parts often relates to electronic components, this is not necessarily true. The way Roxa Technologies operates makes it clear that it is not IT which will push forward the industry, but rather detailed knowledge of how to deliver mechanical solutions. Software can be adapted with the click of the mouse, which is very appealing, but mechanical solutions transform the underlying bits and bytes into actual functionality.
The power of the digital world is one many have come to regard as inevitable, but the team at Roxa Technologies has thrived by understanding its realistic and actual areas of application. The firm can without doubt be seen as a benchmark for the specialist field of “half-robotics”. Drawing from its years of experience across multiple industries, it is here that the company will continue to move forward and meet the demand for solutions that cannot be solely or fully addressed by the digital factory.
For business enquiries, contact CEO, Horst Gusterhuber from Roxa Technologies GmbH via email – hgu@roxa.at or Alexander Lille via email – lille@contentmanufaktur.com
