FANUC Canada celebrates opening of new headquarters in Mississauga

Ribbon cutting ceremony. Photo © Ojasvini Parashar

FANUC Canada opened its new headquarters to the public for the first time on Nov 21, 2024, in Mississauga, Ont. Along with the open house, the company also hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the presence of over 250 attendees, including industry partners, customers and media professionals.

The 73,000 sq ft centre, which opened to employees in June this year, has a sales team, CNCs, robotics, and ROBOMACHINEs demonstrations, training programs, dedicated engineering support and a customer service team.

The robotics and automation solutions provider showcased different products at the open house, including the following-

Flexible multi-arm welding: Featuring the R-1000iA/100F robot, an ARC Mate 100iD welding robot, and iRVision 3DV, this dual-robot system showcased its coordinated motion, picking an auger from a rack and simulating welding as the part rotated;
AI-assisted palletizing and depalletizing: The M-710iD/50M robot, combined with two iRVision 3DV/1600 vision sensors and the FANUC iPC, demonstrated the use of AI Box Detection software. This technology allows the robot to locate difficult-to-distinguish boxes and efficiently depalletize and palletize them;
Cobot palletizing: The CRX-30iA cobot, featuring a 30 kg payload and 1,756 mm reach, utilized PalletTool 3 software to palletize two pallets from a single infeed using a multi-case gripper; and
Food assembly with robots: A demonstration of the LR Mate 200iD tabletop industrial robot and the SR-6iA/C, both food-grade/cleanroom robots, working together to assemble cheeseburgers.

Peter Fitzgerald, general manager of FANUC Canada, emphasized the company’s commitment to meeting the needs of their Canadian customers.

“Meeting the unique needs of our Canadian customers is at the heart of every decision we make,” said Fitzgerald. “That’s why we’re excited to unveil our new Canada headquarters and celebrate our expanded presence in this vibrant region. Whether it’s a large assembly operation or a start-up looking for their first robot, we’re eager to help Canadian manufacturers overcome today’s production challenges with our cutting-edge technologies.”

Fitzgerald also highlighted FANUC Canada’s history in North America, dating back to 1982, when they partnered with General Motors to form GMFANUC Robotics. This partnership was headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and began manufacturing industrial robots. In 1992, GMFANUC Robotics was restructured into FANUC Robotics, which was reorganized into FANUC America Corporation in 2013.

Mike Cicco, president and CEO at FANUC America, also spoke at the event and emphasized the company’s investment in advancing automation and technology in the marketplace.

“This ribbon-cutting ceremony is the fourth ribbon-cutting ceremony that I’ve hosted in the last five years. This is all part of a very strategic plan that we have for advancing automation and technology in the marketplace because we do see the future in that growth,” Cicco said.

Cicco further said that FANUC America had invested over $262 million in North American facilities in the past five years, including the construction of new facilities in Michigan and Mexico. He highlighted that the new Mississauga headquarters represents a significant upgrade from their previous location, with dedicated spaces for training, customer demonstrations, and robot refurbishment.

In his closing remarks, Cicco underscored FANUC’s commitment to problem-solving and building partnerships with their customers. “What we actually do is…solve real-world technology problems…whether it’s streamlining someone’s process, improving efficiency, tackling complex manufacturing hurdles, we’re in the business to make things work. We are a problem-solving organization, and it’s about partnerships that help us in that problem-solving, and I really appreciate the partnerships that we have,” he said.

The grand opening ceremony concluded with an official ribbon cutting, with the assistance of FANUC’s CRX-10iA/L cobot.