Automation controller alliance formed

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 16, 2007

Harbin Electric has reached an agreement with Shelton Technology to design, develop and manufacture custom industrial automation controllers.

Harbin Electric has reached an agreement with Shelton Technology to design, develop and manufacture custom industrial automation controllers.

This agreement will combine Shelton Technology's US-based technological expertise in industrial automation controller technology development with Harbin Electric's China-based advantage in low-cost electric motor manufacturing to develop precision servomotor controller products for Harbin Electric's intelligent motors and provide customised industrial automation controllers to OEMs worldwide.

This agreement will be conducted through Harbin Electric's newly formed subsidiary, Advanced Automation Group.

Through this agreement, Advanced Automation will develop, design, and manufacture controllers for applications such as automated conveyor systems, postal sorting systems, as well as precision servomotor controllers for linear, rotary and permanent magnet motors.

Dr Shaotang Chen will serve as Director of Research and Development of Advanced Automation.

As a part of the agreement, Harbin Electric has agreed to contribute up to US $3 million to Advanced Automation (in installments or prior to March 31, 2009).

In return, Shelton Technology has granted an exclusive worldwide royalty-free license to Advanced Automation for its technology and intellectual property related to precision servomotor controllers for industrial automation, including research and development, design, manufacturing and testing.

Shelton Technology is also assigning its customer list to Advanced Automation as well as active accounts in which they serve the automation controller market.

Shelton Technology, based in Rochester Hills, Michigan, offers engineering services, prototyping and production of electronic assemblies through China-based contract manufacturing operations.

Shelton Technology is comprised of a team of highly experienced engineers with over 60 years in combined experience addressing automotive, industrial, and aerospace engineering design applications.

Shelton Technology brings its current application set of proprietary technologies, electronic assembly manufacturing capability, and its US OEM customer base into this new relationship.

"We are pleased to partner with Shelton Technology to expand our capability into automation controllers Tianfu Yang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Harbin Electric commented.

"We believe that Shelton Technology's team of expert engineers, lead by Dr Shaotang Chen and Dr Xiaogang (Greg) Luo, is the perfect compliment to our company's current RandD and manufacturing capabilities.

This relationship will allow Harbin to develop and manufacture custom servomotor drive systems including motors and controllers for industrial automation OEMs.

In our view, Shelton Technology's proprietary technologies will deepen our research and design resources to provide us greater reach into the US and international markets while quickening the pace of our current product development initiatives".

"Shelton Technology is very excited to join with a world class team such as Harbin Electric", stated Dr Shaotang Chen, manager of US Sales and Product Development for Shelton Technology.

"By combining our resources and strengths together, we believe that we can better serve our industrial automation OEM customers and will be able to develop more product lines for our growing customer base.

We are impressed with Yang's strong leadership and Harbin's position as growing manufacturer of linear and other specialty motors.

The Shelton team believes that this is an excellent opportunity for our expert team of engineers to contribute to the Harbin vision of becoming a substantial supplier in the global industrial automation market by offering innovative servomotor drive systems consisting of both controllers and motors custom made for our OEMs customers".

Yang continued, "We are excited that Dr Chen and his team have agreed to combine their strengths with ours in order to establish a high-tech international company with research, development, design and manufacturing capabilities in the area of industrial automation controllers.

We believe that this combination marks an important step for our company as we expand our reach into the international markets".