Artificial intelligence (AI) collaborative robot (cobot) maker Techman Robot Inc (達明機器人) expects revenue to grow 20 to 30 percent next year, driven by potential wider adoption of its cobots and a low comparison base this year, vice president William Wang (王偉霖) told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday.
The company, a subsidiary of Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), aims to outpace industry growth over the next five years by expanding use among existing customers and extending its applications to other sectors, such as logistics, Wang said.
Techman supplies its cobots mainly to semiconductor, food and medical manufacturers, with visual inspection as the largest application, he said.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
Visual inspection enables cobots to identify and assess products, components or processes, he added.
The company is a robotic arm partner of Nvidia Corp. Its main production base is in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), with after-sales sites set up in the US, South Korea, China, Japan, Thailand and the Netherlands.
While the US tariff rates on cobots are uncertain, pending a Section 232 investigation under the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the company is still considering setting up a production center in the US or Mexico if needed, Wang said.
Any potential plant would likely be limited to assembly and after-sales service, leveraging Quanta’s facilities in Fremont, California; La Vergne, Tennessee; and a site in Mexico, he said.
Techman said it has partnered with medical device maker Advantech Technologies Japan since 2018 to cobrand its cobots and develop next-generation models compatible with mobile platforms.
Several chipmakers, particularly in Taiwan and China, have been steadily integrating Techman’s cobots with autonomous mobile robots in their production lines, Wang said.
Techman is in talks with a Taiwanese logistics firm to deploy its cobots in material carrying and picking, he said.
Techman reported revenue of NT$1.17 billion (US$38.4 million) in the first eight months of the year, up 22.2 percent from a year earlier.
China accounted for about 30 percent of sales, followed by Europe at 20 percent, Taiwan and Japan at 10 percent each, Southeast Asia at less than 10 percent, and the US at less than 5 percent, Wang said.
Fourth-quarter sales are expected to exceed those of the third quarter and top last year’s levels, supported by steady demand from existing customers, he said, without offering an exact growth figure.
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