1,500 applications used in production: igus brings Low Cost Automation to its own factory

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Aug. 7, 2025 - PRLog -- Jobs like removing excess plastic from moulded parts are hard to fill," says Alexander Mühlens, Head of Low Cost Automation at igus. "That's why we launched the 'No boring jobs' initiative—to automate repetitive tasks, support employees, and boost efficiency.

What began as a small project has grown rapidly—igus has automated 1,500 in-house applications and plans 1,000 more in two years. "We've built dozens of solutions with ROI under three months and want to share this know-how," says Alexander Mühlens. At automatica 2025, igus will showcase affordable, easy-to-use robotics via RBTX.de/en-GB, a platform offering 1,000+ modular components from 200+ manufacturers. The goal: robotics for everyone—even small businesses with limited budgets and experience.

The articulated arm robot ReBeL, a cobot made of high-performance plastic, costs just €4,970. Thanks to intuitive software, defining movements is as easy as playing a computer game. Mühlens explains: "The cobot is therefore ideal for simple pick & place tasks or as an assembly tool - activities for which large industrial robots would be completely oversized." igus shows that the ReBeL proves its worth by carry out these 'boring jobs' on a daily basis in its own production facility. There, the ReBeL drills thousands of threads in rod ends every day and marks components in the extrusion process with an inkjet printing unit on its robot hand. It never gets tired and or bored. "The return on investment (ROI) was achieved after just eight weeks", emphasises Mühlens

The other automation solutions from igus also achieve similarly fast ROIs. This is demonstrated, for example, by the ReBeL Move. The autonomous mobile robot on four wheels transports components weighing up to 200kg through the igus factories. The vehicle can be set up within 15 minutes via an app. "The costs of around €30,000 were amortised in just under eight months"," explains Mühlens. Automation solutions that remove the plastic sprue from moulded components on the more than 1,000 injection-moulding machines at igus were even quicker. "The investment was refinanced after just six months." Another example: delta robots that place chain links from energy chains into an automatic assembly machine. Here, the costs of around €40,000 were recouped within ten months. "All these examples show that nowadays, it is possible for many companies to reliably automate routine processes with a manageable budget and little previous experience. This means that they are affected less by the shortage of skilled labour. We support them in this endeavour."

Learn more: https://www.igus.my/automation