Telling 30 years of history can be difficult because one has to retrace with the memory numerous achievements of a partnership that, with determination and ambition, has grown continuously: that between the Japanese giant Kawasaki Robotics and the Italian Tiesse Robot.
The partnership began almost by chance, in 1987.
In Tiesse Robot, at the time made up of two companies - TECNOMECC and SIROBOT - the need grew to find a direct partner in the world of robotics: a robot manufacturer with whom to have a direct exclusive relationship.
Luigi Daprà and engineer Maurizio Ravelli identify Japan as a research basin, known - always - for the high presence of products with very high technological content.
So we are in Japan, at IREX - the reference trade fair for all robotics technologies in the world.
"We visited Kawasaki's stand on the very last day of the fair and the meeting turned out to be of common interest," says engineer Maurizio Ravelli. "Kawasaki Robotics did not, at that time, have a focus on the European market and was therefore interested in finding a local company already operating in the robotics sector."
Tiesse Robot - strong with an important background, precise know-how and knowledge of the Italian and European markets - proposed, and obtained, a commercial agreement with Kawasaki, which found itself interested in General Industry. The numbers of sales and installations mark an important and constant growth that consolidates, project after project, the relationship of trust and collaboration.
Both players thus grasped the potential of a market with wide margins of development and, after just three years of commercial partnership, the relationship between Kawasaki Robotics and Tiesse Robot changed and became a corporate partnership: in 1992, thirty years ago, the corporate agreement was formalized in which Kawasaki acquired 24.9% of the share package of Tiesse.
For the Brescia-based company, this resulted in the realization of new and important investments with a service center and a spare parts center, now covering an area of 18,000 square meters of which over 6,000 covered.
The robotics division of the Japanese giant turned 50 years old in 2018; among the oldest in the world.
Tiesse Robot has also contributed in part to its immense development: its exclusive distributor for Italy but also an international player in turnkey robotic systems with a turnover of €32 million (2021), capable of transmitting and influencing specific innovations for the development of robotic models suitable for industry.
For 30 years, the two companies have been seen and recognised as a single reality and a single brand: technological and production strength on the part of Kawasaki combined with engineering and commercial capabilities on the part of Tiesse.
Together, they have reached new markets - such as South America and South Africa - and expanded exports to Croatia, Serbia, Greece and Turkey.
“Our path” Ravelli continues, “is traced on this union”.
The future of the partnership aims at continuous consolidation, 30 years in the robotics scene represent a pioneering evolution of all technologies and of the market itself.
Tiesse and Kawasaki are looking in the same direction, focusing on innovation and research for all process phases, identifying the most appropriate strategies and anticipating new market trends.