Speaker 0 00:00:00 A I Industrial Automation is the world's leader in robotic and effector tooling, connecting your robots to the tools that they need to do the jobs that robots need to do to keep people safe and keep your environment producing product at the highest possible volumes.
Speaker 1 00:00:21 Hello
Speaker 2 00:00:22 Everyone and welcome to the Robot Industry Podcast. We're glad you're here, and thanks for subscribing. I'm Jim Beretta, and our guest for this podcast edition is Evan Haley. He is Vice President of Global Sales at a t i Industrial Automation. After working independently for a t i for several years, Evan joined the company organization permanently as the director of international sales. In 2012, he was promoted to vice president of global sales in 2022. He employs a balanced management approach that blends mentoring and open communications with disruptive ideology and a strong focus on collaboration leading his team as they build long-term relationships with their customers while driving growth through ATI's various sales channels. Evan, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 0 00:01:06 Thank you very much for having me, Jim.
Speaker 2 00:01:08 No, it's my pleasure. Evan, can you tell us a about at I a little bit of history. I've known the company forever, but I I think it'd be really appropriate for you to give us a little bit of background.
Speaker 0 00:01:18 Sure. Absolutely. Atti, I was, uh, founded by primarily four, uh, of our, of our employee owners who have since left the company, all about one. Mr. Robert Little, who many people know in our industry still is our, as our current president. That was about, uh, 35 years ago now, and it was a spinoff of Lord Corporation where they had been working in their robotics, uh, group and atti started, started in the force torque sensor business years ago. Since then, we've added for more force tort sensing of course, and improved the force tort sensor business. But we also added tool changers, robotic tool changers, utility couplers, material removal tools, many, many devices that are used today to help, uh, secure tooling to robots or tooling to fixturing, things along that nature. So robotic automation is, is where we've really lived in the space. Uh, we have grown from what started out as, you know, six employees, I believe, way back when to just upwards of close to 400 people a year and a half ago. We were purchased by no Vanta, no Vanta is a large, uh, corporation that works within the automation and medical spaces. And that, uh, that purchase and uh, acquisition has been fantastic for at, I, uh, it's a publicly traded company, so we have some regulations and things that we have to worry about as a, as an organization, but I think those things are only making us better and, uh, we look forward to continued growth under the Novanto leadership.
Speaker 2 00:02:44 No, it's a very exciting time for a t i And you know, before we go on, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hold you to explaining to our audience what force, what a force torque sensor is.
Speaker 0 00:02:54 Sure. Absolutely. Uh, force and torque sensing is the ability to gather and measure the forces in X, y, and Z in both force and torts. So a t I manufactures six access force and tort sensors. And one of the best ways of describing that for you would be, imagine if I was a robotic hand and I wanted to pick up a wine glass. Our, our body and our own senses have the ability to see and touch and feel what it is that we're doing, and we get a sense of pressure feedback at our fingertips through our nervous system. So I would know that I put my hands on the glass based on my eyes and my hands feeling it. And as I squeeze my hand to put enough pressure on to pick up the glass, I will get that sense of feedback that I, I'm holding it now firmly.
Speaker 0 00:03:39 A robot can't do that. So we've added vision systems to robot to make them smarter and make them more like humans. But force toque sensing gives the robot now that touch of feel, it gives it that force feedback that would say, I'm now holding the glass and now I'm squeezing the glass at a level of strength that's strong enough to pick it up, but not so strong that I would break it and now I can pick it up and, and move it or do something with it. So that's, that's a fairly straightforward example, but I think it really should illustrate that sense of, of feedback and touch force control can also do things like measurement on the fly and other things that are very useful in, in the logistics world today, our force tour sensors are used for robotic surgeries, for instance, to to work on the actual robots themselves or the heads up display positioning systems for the surgeons and so forth, and the consoles and beds. So there's lots of areas where these products that that robotic force feedback is needed. And as we go into more industrialization of robots and robots doing more tasks that, that humans typically do, especially in these dull, dangerous and dirty environments where we want to remove people and put them in a more productive setting, uh, that sense of feel is is vital to the robot success.
Speaker 2 00:04:50 Yes, thank you for that. Um, well, I'm gonna get back to kind of the commercial side for a minute of a t i and you kind of mentioned this right, about robot surgeries. Uh, but who are your customers in general? Cause I, I know they're systems integrators, uh, for one.
Speaker 0 00:05:04 Sure. So we have a very, very wide range of customers, but the primary users of the product are going to be where the robots are located. So heavy, heavy automotive use certainly is the number one, uh, Indus industrial section that we would serve. Uh, but we do sell direct to those OEMs and the tier ones and so forth. But mostly that would be spare parts. Where we sell the majority of the product is, as you mentioned to the integrators who are building those assembly lines for those, those users. We, we do a fair amount in general industry and certainly the medical industry has been a growing area for us over the last number of years.
Speaker 2 00:05:39 So end of arm tools have really seen some major changes in even the last five years. And what are some of those drivers?
Speaker 0 00:05:46 Sure. Well, I, if we looked at the automotive industry as a great example of that, again, that's where the majority of robots are located around the world in automotive manufacturing. The, the automobile itself is changing, right? As we move from internal combustion engine to electric vehicle, for instance. Uh, and even prior to that, the skins, the materials that are used to, to create the bodies of the cars have changed as we go from, you know, high strength steel and aluminum combinations. There's, there's new processes that have to take place to join those materials together. Uh, servo spot welding previously was pneumatic spot welding. And now that is also going to be driven by, uh, self piercing rivets and flow drill screws and various other types of adhesives and masics and, and, and glues that hold things together as now not only our aluminum, uh, products coming into market to lighten the vehicle weight, but also we're seeing types of plastics and carbon fibers.
Speaker 0 00:06:42 So the joining technologies, for instance, is something that's changed. So the, the old traditional well gun may now be a, a riveting gun or a screw gun or something along those lines. So that would be a a a very straightforward example. I think, um, as we look at picking up materials, uh, and other, other industries using up robotics, smart grippers, electronic grippers, flexible grippers, uh, a adhesive type grippers that actually use sort of what I would refer to as geco technology to be able to pick up glass or things like that, maybe in electronics manufacturing. Uh, those all present different challenges to companies that are using these robots. And for us as a company, they present challenges of us for whatever utilities that they may need to pass through, uh, so that they can get the connection from the robot side through to the tool side. Your
Speaker 2 00:07:30 Leaders in robot accessories like tool changers, the force torque, which we talked about, and compliance devices, are there some devices which are keeping you busier than other devices when you look at your product portfolio?
Speaker 0 00:07:41 Sure, definitely. I mean, tool changing itself is certainly the largest, you know, product line in our portfolio, which we have too. We have the standard, uh, tool changers or standard sq uh, QCs, excuse me, as we call it, uh, or the heavy duty line. So the heavy duty line is much more what you would see in automotive manufacturing, payloads of 300 kilograms and up usually. Uh, and then the standard line though is the larger line because that serves everything from one kilogram all the way up to that 200 kilogram, you know, plus payload range. So, uh, that product line or the combination of those product lines are really the ones that keep us the busiest. They make up the majority of what it is that we do. The force towards sensing business comes in in second, uh, to those. And then the material removal products, uh, would come in after that. And then we've got a smattering of other things that sort of fill in some smaller gaps for very customer specialized
Speaker 2 00:08:30 Type. Evan, what industry verticals are buying products from you?
Speaker 0 00:08:35 Well, we serve a great many, uh, certainly again, you know, the automotive industry of course, and then all of the various verticals that fall into that particular segment. And then if we get into medical, we are looking at surgical, medical, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, uh, so there's, there's lots of research and development as well associated to that, that particular, uh, segment. If we move into general industry, of course, then that really, really, really opens it up wide. So it could be anything from, uh, furniture manufacturing to textile industry to uh, just basic manufacturing of anything, woodworking, all types of things, food and beverage and so forth. And, and another one that's growing for us very quickly is the, uh, logistics and warehouse distribution fulfillment sector. So companies like, uh, Amazon's and DHL and FedEx and so forth who are, who are putting more and more robots into their facilities to try and improve on the throughput of all of these packages that they process. So there's more and more opportunities there for us as a business and for many others in the, in the world of robotics and automation.
Speaker 2 00:09:43 It just seems you're at the right place at the right time with the right products. Right. It it just a really, really good confluence. Are you doing more work with, uh, collaborative robots for cobots?
Speaker 0 00:09:52 We do work with collaborative robots. We don't do as much work as some of the other companies out there, uh, might do, who have fewer products perhaps than we do, but they're very targeted and focused to the collaborative robot. The collaborative robots face, you know, has been known as a big disruptor and I certainly agree with that. Software and ease of use is a big driving factor for that. Our customer base has primarily always been the industrial space, and we certainly do sell to people using collaborative robots, but the, the collaborative robot applications that we tend to work with are less collaborative and more what I would call light industrial, where they are using them as if they are standard industrial robots typically set up in very similar fashions with the same types of safety around them. They're using the collaborative robot because it's a, it's a gateway to robotics, if you want to call it that. It allows you to get in at a lower price point to start prove out to the automation theory, and then you may continue to deploy additional same branded robots, or you may move to a, an industrial robot manufacturer and upgrade the robots or make changes to those robots depending on what the application requires. So we do work in that space, but it is a smaller space for us than, uh, than for others.
Speaker 2 00:11:03 Um, and I just had you on a webinar not too long ago with the Robot Industry Association and with, uh, 3M talking about grinding. And so that leads me into, uh, some of the trends that you're seeing in manufacturing in general, cuz you're really at the kind of the top end of this conversation. Well,
Speaker 0 00:11:19 Certainly, yes, we appreciate that. Uh, we definitely see trends and, uh, material removal is, is a great one. That is a curve that is, has got a long arc to it. It's very, very hard to see exactly when that's going to really come into fruition and, and start the snowball rolling downhill faster. Uh, material removal applications are challenging and they're very subjective in that the finish required by a customer, it, it's very hard to have a firmly defined speck of something that's acceptable. And for that reason, there's a lot of integrators that are very reluctant to jump into that pool and say, I'm, I'm game. I'll give this a shot, uh, because it is challenging and you can go down the path of, I've built you a a line to do this particular job, but now you've got six people that are reviewing the end result and not all agreeing on what was right or wrong with it and, and is it acceptable and will the customer accept it?
Speaker 0 00:12:15 And that, that becomes a bit of a money pit sometimes for some people. Now there are integrators and there are several really, really good ones who have really adopted this space and decided that they were gonna jump in with both feet completely understand the market and spend the time in the money to learn and experiment and get very good at it. And we certainly work with those companies. We have a, an established integrator network for the material removal and finishing space here. Of course, we do partner with companies like 3m, for example, on getting technical advice on the media that's required for the customers to, to give them the best results. So it is a space where we are actively pushing hard to, to grow and essentially kind of cutting the path a little bit to more and more robotic automation in this space. So, uh, does that totally blow up and, and become rapid, you know, is that three years from now? Is that five years from now? I think that's anybody's guess, but I, I think it's definitely a matter of when, not if, and so we're, we're playing the long game in this particular market space, but I think it's going to pay off down the
Speaker 2 00:13:18 Road. You know, I think of things like furniture finishing and cabinet doors, sanding and, uh, just all those, like you said, the dirty, dangerous, disgusting jobs that people just, they, they don't want to do anymore and, and they can't do because they, they just can't get the quality achievement. So are there any other trends that you're seeing in manufacturing?
Speaker 0 00:13:36 I think, uh, and luckily, you know, what I mentioned earlier about people looking at vision systems and force and torque systems to try and give robots more of that sense of touch and feel. If you rolled back, you know, 10 years, certainly 15 years, vision systems were certainly out then, but they weren't as prevalent as they are today. Now, uh, you know, and, and I'm going to paraphrase, but I believe that somewhere above 80 90% of the robots def fan sells for many types of applications, have vision systems on 'em, if I remember my friend Lu Zenos numbers correctly. Um, you know, that this just shows you how important that piece of the puzzle has become to try and make these robots as effective as possible. So again, there's a long arc to where force and torque, uh, you know, sensors get into this, this means of making the robot have that sense of touch.
Speaker 0 00:14:28 But I think that really is a, a significant trend. We are seeing more and more of it. Um, we're, we're seeing it in unusual places where in the past somebody wouldn't have considered putting these types of sensors in and we're seeing 'em, you know, starting to grow to scale. So I think that for us is, is one of the market trends that we're, we're very interested in seeing. And the other big one, as I mentioned earlier, which is, is the logistics and, and, uh, order fulfillment space. That is a, a very heavily manned operation. You've got people doing a lot of things. There's lots, lots of room for error. Uh, it's not an easy job to do. And robots can certainly do that, uh, and would improve the throughput for these companies, which would be a benefit. Obviously, we, we all want everything we buy online to come to us sooner, right? That's the reality. So, uh, they're doing their best. These large companies are doing their best to make sure that things can get out the door faster and more accurately to us. So they're, they're certainly driving that trend.
Speaker 2 00:15:26 And so what does the future look like? Do you think it's gonna be more torque, more, more force, more robots?
Speaker 0 00:15:32 I certainly hope so. Uh, obviously this is the career that I've chosen and, uh, and I'm a very strong believer in that I have a, a real passion for it. I do think that is where we need to go. And I think that, uh, when we look at the use of robots in the workforce, robots don't really replace people. They replace people in a specific task, but they don't necessarily replace people all together. And I think that is, that is one of the things that's most important to understand about robotics and automation, is that we allow companies to have more money by creating better products, higher quality, better output and throughput, uh, reducing costs of certain, you know, especially difficult types of applications where you can take that money and reinvest that. Now you might choose to reinvest it in additional automation, which again, should be a continuing form of, of payback to you, but that also allows you to take the people and put them in places and in jobs that allow them to, to grow themselves, right?
Speaker 0 00:16:29 Become better than just a person who picks something up and puts it from here to here. Uh, that's a very monotonous job. And it's not to say that it's not an important job because that job needs to get done to get the product out the door, but if a robot could do that and that person could spend more time inspecting the quality of something, or, you know, looking for the next biggest and best thing that's gotta happen in that business, that is a win for everybody. Now, there, the robots in automation, uh, industry also create a tremendous spinoff of jobs in all types of other areas. So whether that's integration, whether that's sales, uh, product development, marketing, you know, there's so much more that that just comes from this. And in order to be competitive with offshore, you know, manufacturing that's out there, we absolutely have got to reduce our costs here. From the perspective of manufacturing as, uh, cost to produce product in this country is still much higher than it's going to be in China or other countries. And although they are catching up, there's still a significant delta there and, uh, it's, it's beneficial for us to, to bring more manufacturing back here to the Americas and, and build that using robotics and automation.
Speaker 2 00:17:38 Uh, one of the things that, uh, I have, uh, in, and I'm gonna put this in the podcast notes, uh, we also interviewed you guys a couple years ago on some of the work you were doing on the Mars Rover. Are there any other cool projects like that that you've been working on?
Speaker 0 00:17:52 We do continue to work with space exploration from time to time. Uh, there's not a lot of those things that we can discuss until they're absolutely released as, as obviously, of course, government agencies. So suffice to say that, uh, that yes, when things go up in the air on rockets, a t i has a big piece of what might be happening on some of those applications, and we're very proud of that. Uh, you know, the Mars rover which was released and is public knowledge, we can certainly talk about that. If you look at an engineering organization that's out there in the world, I think arguably many people would point to NASA and any of the companies that work with NASA as, as sort of the pinnacle of, of what engineering excellence should be. And when you think about putting a product, whether it's in the moon, in space, certainly on Mars, you know, the very, very far away from us, obviously, uh, you have to build a product that's reliable.
Speaker 0 00:18:41 It had to go through a tremendous amount of engineering, a tremendous amount of testing and vetting. It has to be as bulletproof is possible. And when you're selected by someone like NASA or JPL or some of these companies that are putting product up in space as being the product that they choose, that is absolutely a win in our books. You know, for our engineering teams, that is something that we can be extremely proud of. Uh, we're, we're hoping to provide a product that helps the world understand and, and grow and explore. And at the same time, we're certainly very proud to be selected by such an, an excellent organization like NASA to, to be represented on a product like the Marsal, Berkeley and other products that they developed.
Speaker 2 00:19:25 Evan, thanks for coming on. Uh, did we forget to talk about anything today in our conversation? Well,
Speaker 0 00:19:29 I don't think so, other than telling more people to come and look at, at I and see how we can might be able to help you out. We're, we're always looking to, uh, find new customers and, and engage in areas where we can possibly help you, uh, make your production facilities better and safer. And we're happy to have those conversations and refer you to the right types of integrators and, and robot companies that we work with every day. Uh, the industrial automation and robotics industry is a very tight knit group, uh, at I works with literally everybody out there and we have strong relationships. So for any customer, potential customer that's looking at this, somebody thinking of automating, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'd be more than happy to try and help point you in the right direction and get you started on your robotic automation journey.
Speaker 2 00:20:16 Thank you for that. And when you're not out helping integrators and and customers in the robot world, what, uh, what do you like to do? Do you have any hobbies?
Speaker 0 00:20:23 Sure, but right now I have a four year old, so I started light in life with children and having a four year old means all the hobbies I used to have are really now focused around running around with my little guy. Uh, but yes, I love fly fishing, saltwater fly fishing as well, uh, playing golf and, uh, and just generally traveling. I've, uh, traveled millions and millions of miles in my business career. But, uh, you know, getting to to see the world through, through business travel has also made me love the idea of travel. So, uh, getting to travel all over the world to some fun and exotic places and learn more about different people and culture has been really probably the thing I enjoy most.
Speaker 2 00:20:59 Very cool. And congratulations by the way, on the little one. Thank
Speaker 0 00:21:03 You.
Speaker 2 00:21:04 So how can people get ahold of you if they wanna find out a little bit more about Atti or yourself?
Speaker 0 00:21:08 Sure, certainly. So we're always, uh, available through joining us, you know, connecting to our
[email protected]. If you Google search robotic tool changers or many of those things at, I will be the first thing that pops up in most cases. Uh, our telephone number at the office here is 9 1 9 7 7 2 0, uh, 1 1 5. And, uh, we're more than welcome to, uh, to take your call.
Speaker 2 00:21:37 Our sponsor for this episode is Earhart Automation Systems. Earhart builds and commissions turnkey solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing, they understand the complex world of robotics, automated manufacturing and project management delivering world-class custom automation on time and on budget. Contact one of their sales engineers to see what Airhart can build for you. They're at info airhart automation.com and you, Airhart is spelled E H R H A R D T, and I'd like to acknowledge a three, the Association for Advancing Automation. They're the leading automation trade association for robotics, vision and imaging motion control and motors in the industrial artificial intelligence community. Visit automate.org to learn more, and I'd like to recognize painted robot, painted robot builds and integrates digital solutions. They're a web development firm that offers seo, digital social marketing, and can set up and unify c r m and other e r p tools to, to help connect marketing, sales and operations. And you can find them
[email protected]. And if you'd like to get in touch with us at the Robot Industry Podcast, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening. Be safe out there. Today's podcast was produced by Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing, and I'd like to rec recognize my nephew, Chris Gray, for the music Jeff Brenner for our audio production and my business partner Janet, and our sponsor, Earhart Automation Systems.
