Kollmorgen and Sky-Trax Enter into Strategic Alliance and Supply Agreement
Five Year Agreement sets Business for Guided Vehicles into Motion
New Castle, Delaware, June 10, 2009 Sky-Trax Inc. (Sky-Trax) and Kollmorgen – A Danaher Motion Company, announced today a five year partnership that provides Kollmorgen with the exclusive rights to distribute navigation and localization products from Sky-Trax. Distribution of the Sky-Trax products will be under the Kollmorgen brand.
“The agreement with Kollmorgen provides an unprecedented opportunity for our two companies to challenge each other to achieve the next generation of navigation and guidance products for the materials handling world,” said Larry Mahan, President and COO of Sky-Trax. “Now, as partners we will work together toward the shared goal of introducing new technologies and designing higher performance products for a new class of guided vehicles.”
The strategic alliance between the two companies includes further development in the area of guided vehicles, while expanding their capabilities for materials handling applications. As the demand for Guided Vehicles is expected to increase as distribution centers continue to seek process improvement and optimization; Sky-Trax/Kollmorgen products will be marketed to both traditional forklift truck and automated vehicle operations. The goal is to enable manned and driverless vehicles to work safely and cooperatively together in today’s warehouse and factory environments.
“By partnering with Sky-Trax we extend our NDC Suite – the global standard for driverless vehicle controls – with an alternative solution for navigation in warehouse aisles and open floor high stacking of goods”, said Mattias Byström, General Manager, AGV Systems at Kollmorgen.
Each company describes the relationship as a win-win and believes the market is now ready for the new technology and products they will develop together. From this partnership, Kollmorgen, the leader in AGV controls technology, will look to increase its sales and Sky-Trax, the pioneer of Optical Real-Time Location Systems for tracking all indoor assets and inventory, will continue to develop new and innovative warehouse optimization solutions with the collaboration of its new partner. New technologies created thru the partnership will be sold by both companies and made available worldwide upon their release.
About Kollmorgen
The Kollmorgen AGV Systems business unit is an automation technology partner primarily for driverless applications such as Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems (AGVS) and the recently launched Pick-n-Go® solution. Kollmorgen is the market share and technology leader of controls for AGVs globally. The solutions are provided via channel partners offering system integration and automated truck/vehicle supply and services. The AGV systems group, located in Gothenburg Sweden, is part of Kollmorgen a global company providing the broadest range of motion control technologies in the industry.
About Sky-Trax Inc.
Sky-Trax is the inventor and commercial provider of Optical Real-Time Location Systems for tracking goods, vehicles and guiding autonomous vehicles in any size facility. Sky-Trax revolutionary location tracking and automatic data collection systems are designed for indoor industrial vehicles; primarily in warehouses. Applications employing Sky-Trax Optical RTLS are economical and practical to deploy, allowing warehouse professionals to substantially increase safety and improve warehouse efficiency. The results are fewer safety incidents, much lower operating costs, improved inventory accuracy, and greater throughput. For more information, please visit www.Sky-Trax.com.
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Kollmorgen Contact:
Henrik Eriksson
Business Unit ManagerPick-n-Go®, AGV Systems
Danaher Motion Särö AB
429 80 Särö.
Sweden
Tel: +46 31 938066
Henrik.Eriksson@danahermotion.com
Sky-Trax, Inc. Contact:
Sarah Brisbin
Vice President, Marketing
Sky-Trax, Inc
98 Quigley Blvd.
New Castle, DE 19720
302-395-9540
Sarah.Brisbin@sky-trax.com
