POSCO Group said on the 14th that it will push full-scale robot automation at drive motor core production sites in partnership with global industrial robot maker Yaskawa Electric.
POSCO Group on the day signed a three-way business agreement at the POSCO Mobility Solution Cheonan business site with POSCO DX, POSCO Mobility Solution, and Yaskawa Electric Korea. Through this agreement, the company plans to gradually expand the application of industrial robots to POSCO Mobility Solution's motor core production plants at home and abroad.
Under the agreement, robots will be deployed to transport motor cores produced by POSCO Mobility Solution to quality inspection measuring equipment and to sort inspected products by quality grade. The robots will be applied sequentially to overseas business sites in Poland, Mexico, and India, starting with the Cheonan and Pohang business sites. Earlier, POSCO Mobility Solution and POSCO DX installed and have operated the robots at the Pohang plant since last year.
The division of roles is also clear. POSCO Mobility Solution will derive robot requirements needed on the production floor, and POSCO DX will handle robot placement, automation system layout design, and integrated buildout with consideration for linkage to existing production facilities and systems. Yaskawa will supply robots optimized for the production environment and handle maintenance and technical support.
The drive motor cores produced by POSCO Mobility Solution are key components for electric and hybrid vehicles, converting battery power into rotational power to drive the vehicle. The products are supplied to global automakers including Hyundai Motor, Tesla, and Stellantis. Yaskawa is known as a company with high-speed, high-precision industrial robot technology based on motion control.
POSCO Group said it is expanding robot automation across major manufacturing sites such as steel and secondary batteries through this collaboration, and plans to extend physical artificial intelligence (AI)-based robot automation combined with artificial intelligence (AI) technology to industrial sites inside and outside the group.
Meanwhile, POSCO Group said it is promoting the spread of intelligent factories across manufacturing sites and applying robot unmanned technologies to improve productivity while building a safe and pleasant working environment.