Yaskawa Southern Africa has announced that Kurt Rosenberg has been appointed Managing Director of the company as of 1 November 2016. Kurt takes over from his father Terry Rosenberg, who is the doyen of the robotic welding industry in South Africa. Terry Rosenberg will in future be the Chairman of the local subsidiary and concentrate on key accounts in the business.
Yaskawa Southern Africa has roots dating back to 1991 when Terry Rosenberg established Robotic Systems SA and worked together with Yaskawa Motoman on the basis of a supplier/distributor partnership, selling systems and solutions into the local industry. The company now has over 3 000 active systems working in industry.
During the first quarter of 2012, a majority stake in Robotic Systems was acquired by Yaskawa Europe and the local entity was renamed Yaskawa Southern Africa. Terry Rosenberg was appointed Managing Director of the company in South Africa.
Mr Yoshimitsu Sonohara from Yaskawa Electric, Manfred Stern, President of Yaskawa Europe GmbH with Terry and Kurt Rosenberg from Yaskawa Southern Africa
Kurt Rosenberg joined the company in 2006 and has been involved in all aspects of the business since including robotic sales, internal systems and CAD and procedures development. Kurt completed an NDip Architectural Technology at Wits Technikon in 1994 before going on to work at various Architectural, Construction, Interior and Urban Designing companies over a period of 10 years. In between Kurt also qualified as a PADI dive instructor and worked in the diving and leisure industry for two years.
Kurt has since completed further studies in PMD Business General Management and Economics and Strategic Sales Management at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg and Project Management.
More than robotic welding
“I have big shoes to fill as you mention robotic welding in industry and my father’s name comes up. But the company is not just about robotic welding. Yaskawa Electric, the Japanese holding company of Yaskawa Europe, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers in the fields of drive technology, industrial automation and robotics. For over 100 years, our products and solutions have been supporting automation in a wide variety of industrial processes including mining, mechanical engineering and toolmaking, as well as the automotive, packaging, wood processing, lift, textile and semiconductor industries.”
“The activities of Yaskawa Electric are divided into four areas: Motion Control (inverter drives, servo drives, servomotors, machine controllers), Robotics (industrial robots, service robots, robot systems), System Engineering (medium-voltage inverters, generators and converters) and Information Technology (software, information processing).”
“Following the acquisition, Yaskawa Southern Africa has had ongoing discussions with Yaskawa Europe with the aim of broadening the footprint of its portfolio in South Africa. Besides robots, Yaskawa’s substantial range of related products includes a portfolio by Vipa (visualisation and process automation) in Germany, another recent acquisition by Yaskawa Europe. This combination of Vipa’s portfolio of PLCs, I/O modules and HMI with Yaskawa’s inverter, AC servo and robot product lines enabled Yaskawa to offer comprehensive automation solutions in a wide range of markets, including those where electrical power and energy efficient systems play an important role.”
Drives, Motion, Control DMC division
“In March this year we announced the establishment of a new local business unit, DMC – drives, motion, control. We are now able to support and supply the full suite of Yaskawa automation solutions in the region. Every manufacturing machine, conveyor belt, lifting system, bottle filler or packaging system has controllers, drives and motors that have to be co-ordinated to optimise the performance of the process.”
“This is an enormous market for us and offers a significant growth opportunity. We can also truly say that we now have the tools to offer total automation solutions with support from two of the most industrialised countries, Germany and Japan.”
For further details contact Yaskawa Southern Africa TEL: 011 608 3182
