TRUMPF has strengthened its portfolio of technologies for connected production. The machine tool company bought 60 percent of the shares in BeSpoon SAS on July 1, 2017. This company – based in Le Bourget-du-Lac, France – makes sensors, system components and software for position-tracking processes. BeSpoon products make it possible to locate objects in rooms and production facilities with centimeter accuracy and in real time. In addition, BeSpoon is one of just a few companies specializing in these products – key elements in digitalized production processes that are mastering the complex production environment of sheet metal production in a unique way.

Their ultra-wide band (UWB) location system makes production processes more transparent. Active production control and production tracking becomes easy when a manufacturing execution system such as Xetics by TRUMPF is combined with real-time location systems. The BeSpoon components create transparency at all times where individual objects, such as manufacturing orders or semi-finished products, are located within production facilities. This realizes the linkage of the real and digital world and thus represents an important enabling technology for future products for digital transformation.

TRUMPF will offer its customers in sheet-metal processing this location technology as an integrated solution in its TruConnect portfolio of products for smart factories. In addition, TRUMPF sees high potential for using UWB technology in assembly, logistics and process environments. To harness this potential, the company will pursue partnerships with other companies.

Founded in 2010, BeSpoon employs 12 people. All shares had been held by the company’s founders and some employees. TRUMPF and BeSpoon agreed to not disclose the purchase price.

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