Louisville's Manufacturing Landscape: From Hemp to High-Tech Robotics

When you bring up manufacturing, anyone over the age of 50 in Kentucky may reference hemp growing and the manufacturing of hemp products – a large industry in the Bluegrass State until hemp was lumped in with its cousin, marijuana, as a drug in the 1970s and made illegal to grow without a permit. Since that time, Kentucky has had to look at other manufacturing options, and sometimes those options include industrial robotics.

One Louisville, KY company, Sypris Solutions, is very diversified when it comes to its manufacturing. The company caters not only to the manufacturing industry, but also to the transportation, aerospace, defense and oil industries. The company manufactures electronics and other technologies for these several different industries. Companies like Sypris Solutions can benefit from robotic automation because of the diversity of their product lines. In the electronics industry, products change on a faster speed than almost any other industry. By using flexible automation, robots can be programmed and outfitted with vision and touch sensors to allow manufacturers to run different products on the same line, which saves time and money.

Another Kentucky company based in Louisville, Material Handling Systems Inc., constructs conveyor systems for material handling lines. Robots fit into this business because what better to construct conveyor lines than the robots that would be working them? Robots can weld metal frames in place and cut the textile used for the conveyor, as well as put the conveyor system components in place. By using robotics for these applications, cuts and welds will have an improved quality that will enhance the overall quality of the product.

So, where do these Kentucky companies look when they want to integrate a robotic system into their facility? They look north to RobotWorx in Marion, Ohio. RobotWorx is a certified integrator for Fanuc, Motoman, KUKA, Universal Robots, and ABB robotics. We strive to match each of our customers with the perfect system to meet all of their manufacturing needs.