Ultimation Industries' New Warehouse Robots Provide a Solution for Creating the Future's Fully Integrated Warehouse

INDUSTRIAL DATA

OPT Industries | August 20, 2021

OPT Industries, a manufacturing technology startup, announced the opening of its first manufacturing facility in Medford, Mass. to scale market access to RAMPTM, the first roll-to-roll 3D printing platform that allows continuous materials production at unlimited lengths with new levels of micron-level precision. Spun out of MIT, OPT began with a patented 3D printing system built upon years of R&D in additive manufacturing and computational fabrication by OPT founder Jifei Ou. The technology enables 24/7 fully automated production of continuous 3D printed microstructures with no limitation in length. During the pandemic, the team quickly scaled up the technology to design and manufacture the InstaSwabTM novel nasal swab for COVID-19 testing. To date, OPT has supplied over 800,000 swabs to a number of healthcare and at-home testing organizations nationwide. "Our proprietary additive manufacturing system specializes in making microstructures at a massive scale," said Ou. "We're unique in precision microfabrication that can create rolls of materials and designs with no limitation in length. Our technology stack currently provides material solutions for medical, cosmetic, and consumer product applications." OPT organizes its technology stack as a digital manufacturing system to rapidly design and mass produce a wide range of functional materials and products from micro to macro scale. The all-in-one system includes: • RAMPTM 3D Printer: First-ever automated continuous manufacturing system powered by roll-to-roll based digital photolithography that allows for the creation of continuous materials and products at an unlimited length. • Generative Software: Custom algorithms optimize the design of dense micron-scale structures to produce highly customized, ultra fine and freeform features. • Engineered Polymers: Engineered polymers with micron-scale precision that can be designed for advanced properties — spanning mechanical, biological, thermal, and more. With the Medford expansion, OPT is broadening R&D, manufacturing and fulfillment capabilities. "New and emerging technology industries recognize that Medford is an ideal place to start a business and access our incredible talent pool, robust City resources and top level restaurants and shops," said Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn. "I am thrilled that OPT Industries is choosing to call Medford home and it was an honor to cut the ribbon on their new headquarters in the City. This innovative company is hard at work perfecting a revolutionary 3D-printed nasal swab that can detect trace amounts of the COVID-19 virus, enabling people to get diagnosed and treated faster." As a fully equipped research lab and manufacturing site, the 14,000-square-foot facility adheres to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines and ISO 13485:2016-certification for medical device manufacturing. Amid growing demand by Fortune 500 companies and market leaders for OPT's products, including the InstaSwabTM high efficacy medical swab, OPT is establishing its first product line focused on serving the medical sector. "OPT will be continuously enhancing new capabilities from our technologies to introduce new product lines for the industries we serve," added Ou. "We work with our customers as a one-shop stop partner to design, develop and manufacture end products to meet their exact needs. Whether you're a distributor or a brand interested in co-inventing a new product, OPT's collaborative business model offers a new paradigm for product creation from inception to manufacturing." About OPT Industries OPT combines computational design, automation engineering, and material science to design and manufacture highly customizable functional materials. Using its patented technology, OPT provides material solutions to customers across multiple industries that address their design, production, and supply chain needs.

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businesswire | March 01, 2021

Accenture has plans to acquire Pollux. Pollux is a provider of industrial robotics and automation solutions. It is headquartered in Joinville, Brazil. The acquisition will help Accenture to expand and advance its capabilities for clients in consumer goods, pharmaceutical and automotive industries. It will be doing this in order to make their factories, plants, and supply chains more productive, safe, and sustainable in the long run. Also, the aim is to strengthen operations, digital manufacturing, and supply chain capabilities. Some of the recent acquisitions include technology consultancy SALT Solutions (Germany), Silveo (France), industrial operations consulting firm Myrtle (US), Callisto Integration (Canada), PLM Systems (Italy), and Enterprise System Partners (Ireland). This instance is the first acquisition of Accenture in the field of an industrial robotics solutions provider. Through this acquisition, Accenture will encompass Pollux’s operations in Ecuador, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Pollux’s more than 290 professionals will join Accenture’s Industry X group. The group embeds intelligence that understands how clients run factories and plants, as well as design and engineer connected products and services. Nigel Stacey, global lead for Accenture Industry X, mentions that automation and human + machine collaboration are digitally transforming manufacturing and supply chain operations. These activities will be more flexible, sustainable, resilient, and safe. These activities are set up to meet ever-changing customer demands in better ways. These benefits in practice involve a proper integration of information technology and operations technology. And this is what Pollux will allow Accenture to offer manufacturing clients. Further to this, Renato Improta, Latin America lead for Accenture Industry X also added saying that Pollux’s expertise and experience in robotics and automation solutions will complement industry consulting skills in industrial IT and applied intelligence capabilities. This combination will enable delivering real-time supply chain and operations orchestration along with flexible manufacturing functions to clients. In Brazil, Accenture newly purchased information security firm Real Protect and cloud specialist Organize Cloud Labs as well.

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Lygos | November 04, 2020

Lygos, Inc., a vertically integrated provider of safe and sustainable specialty ingredients, today announced that it has joined the Bioindustrial Manufacturing And Design Ecosystem (BioMADE), a nonprofit Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) and network of public-private entities created by the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC). BioMADE is working together with Lygos and other manufacturers and innovators to advance bioindustrial manufacturing technologies while simultaneously enhancing the structure of the entire innovation ecosystem across the country. BioMADE was recently awarded $87 million from the Department of Defense to promote and secure long-term US biotechnology innovation. The collaborative institute will develop predictive downstream processing and scale-up to help accelerate prototyping capabilities and reduce the time, risk, and cost of bringing bio-based products, such as Lygos’ organic acids and cannabinoids, to commercial scale.

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