Absolute Group has formed Absolute Robot Inc. to sell Well-Lih robots made in Yugao, China, as the exclusive sales and service agent in North America.
Ningbo Well-Lih Robots Technology Co. Ltd., founded in 2003, manufactures about 6,000 robots a year in its 215,000-square-foot plant. Robots specifically designed for the North American market will be available in the fourth quarter this year.
Absolute, based in Worcester, Mass., also sells Chinese-made Haitian injection presses.
For Absolute Robot Inc., the company has beefed up its management team by hiring Bob Shingledecker as director of operations and Ellen Reed, who will be territory sales manager and director of business development.
Shingledecker previously served as technical sales manager for auxiliary equipment maker ACS Group, where he handled product application and specifications for turnkey automation systems. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Shingledecker has 20 years of plastics industry experience, 15 of them in automation.
Reed comes to Absolute Robot from South Korean robot maker HyRobotics Corp., where for the last two years she directed the sales and marketing efforts and managed a 40 person sales organization. Absolute said Reed is an Olympic athlete who swam in the butterfly events for the Brazilian women's team in 1996.
Absolute Robot will demonstrate the robots and provide training at its technical centers in Worcester and Parma, Ohio. The robot line will be supported out of the service and aftermarket operations based in Parma.
