KUKA receives trendsetting solar industry orders

Last year, KUKA Systems expanded its plant construction and systems business activitiesbeyond the automotive industry and has now received large orders from the United States. Thecompany has a contract to supply robot-based photovoltaic module manufacturing systems toEvergreen Solar Inc. , Marlboro, Massachusetts, for its new Devens, Massachusetts productionplant. Evergreeen's new systems will handle the entire production process, from manufacturingthe solar cell right down to the final packaging of the module. KUKA Systems will support themodule manufacturing production sequence.

KUKA Systems in Germany will manage the project, whereas the system will be built in Germanyand in the United States. This will be an interdepartmental effort by these two regions, which atthe same time indicates the international aspect of this futuristic technology.

Gerhard Wiedemann, CEO of KUKA AG, underlines the importance of the project: "Our newlyformed solar industry business is an important building block in our efforts to expand our generalindustry activities. Robotics' share of these sales also continues to steadily increase."