SMC Corporation Announces Master Distributor Partnership with Soft Robotics Inc.

PRESS RELEASE --- Noblesville, IN –December 8, 2020

SMC Corporation of America, a subsidiary of SMC Corporation (Tokyo, Japan), a leading global pneumatics and industrial automation components manufacturer located in Noblesville, Indiana, has become a master distributor of Soft Robotics Inc. (Bedford, MA) for strategic global markets. This strategic partnership will empower SMC Corporation’s global sales team to bring Soft Robotics’ groundbreaking robotic technology to its customers around the world.

“Signing a master distributor agreement with Soft Robotics Inc. is the natural next step for SMC as our complementary products are essential for future-proofing production lines in all industries, especially food & beverage, packaging, logistics and e-commerce,” says Yoshiki Takada, Executive Vice President, SMC Corporation.

Soft Robotics’ novel soft grippers and control systems make possible high speed, reliable picking of delicate and highly variable items commonly found in food processing, consumer goods production, and logistics applications.

“Soft Robotics is delighted to partner with SMC to expand our global reach and bring our unique robotic automation solutions to machine builders at scale. Together we will unlock the full potential of industrial automation for all industries at a time when labor is becoming more scarce, global food producers are under intense pressure to improve product safety, and the world battles the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Jeff Beck, Executive Chairman.

“Although this newly announced global partnership is a powerful next step, our two companies began collaborating years ago when the engineers at SRI designed the first of many production ready Soft Robotics Control Units. This proprietary system, currently deployed in hundreds of global installations, incorporates several SMC components including solenoid valves and an ITV series electro-pneumatic regulator to deliver high-performance operation, world-class reliability, and extremely long cycle life to meet the demands of the industry,” says Mark Chiappetta, Chief Operating Officer.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/smc/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/soft-robotics-inc-/

About SMC Corporation of America

SMC Corporation of America is headquartered at 10100 SMC Boulevard, Noblesville, Indiana 46060, and is a subsidiary of SMC Corporation in Japan. SMC Corporation is the world’s largest pneumatics company dedicated to sustainable factory automation with technical development centers in Japan, the U.S., Europe and China.

SMC has been making significant investments in Noblesville with a new 1 million sq. ft. distribution facility integrating AutoStore, a cube storage automation warehouse where inventory is stacked in a cube then sorted and retrieved by robots redefining storage space. This facility will supply 26 sales offices in the United States and 5 sales offices in Canada that are supported by engineering and manufacturing also located in Noblesville, Indiana.

About Soft Robotics

Soft Robotics is an industry-leading and award-winning technology company that designs and builds automated picking solutions using proprietary soft robotic grippers, 3D machine perception and SoftAI™ artificial intelligence. The company’s transformational robotic automation solutions enable machine builders to solve the hardest piece picking problems in industries like food processing, consumer goods production, and logistics.

Soft Robotics is backed by leading venture capital firms and strategic investors that include Calibrate

Ventures, Hyperplane Venture Capital, Material Impact, Scale Venture Partners, FANUC, ABB Technology

Ventures, Honeywell Ventures, Tekfen Ventures and Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.