Fanuc Robot History

Since its inception in 1956, Fanuc (Fuji Automatic Numerical Control) robotics has continued to meet global demands and innovate their technologies time and time again. They have successfully grown into one of the largest makers of industrial robots in the world.

1956 - The first NC in the Japanese private sector was developed successfully.

1958 - The first commercial Fanuc NC was shipped to Makino Milling Machine Co., Ltd.

1959 - The first continuous path NC in Japan was developed. The first electro-hydraulic pulse motor was developed. It was the most important component for Fanuc's open loop systems, forming the basis for Fanuc's progress and leap, as the Japanese NC machine tool industry made a rapid growth.

1960 - The first open loop NC, Fanuc 220 was developed. The NC development in Japan focused first on the "Contouring Control" rather than "Positioning Control". This was because of cheap labor costs at that time in Japan, which made it more sensible to automate complex shape machining by milling machines, rather than to automate machining by drilling machines.

1972 - FUJITSU Fanuc LTD was founded and became independent from FUJITSU LIMITED. CNC was introduced. NC drill was developed.

1974 - Industrial robots were developed and installed in our factory. Dr. Inaba, President of Fanuc was rewarded with "the 6th Annual Memorial Award of Joseph Marie Jacquard" by the American NC Society. The production and sale of DC servo motors were started under GETTYS MANUFACTURING CO., INC license.

1976 - GENERAL NUMERIC CORPORATION was jointly established in the U.S.A. by Fanuc and Siemens A.G.

1979 - Fanuc SYSTEM 6 was the first CNC in the world that featured a large capacity Bubble Memory and multiple number of custom LSIs, thus significantly reducing the number of its parts, enhancing its control capabilities as well as realizing outstanding reliability and cost performance. The advent of Intel's microprocessor enabled Fanuc SYSTEM 6 Series to use it to perform interpolation and transfer tool-position-information, the data of the interpolation, into servo-error-register every 8ms in real time.

1982 - Fanuc MECHATRONICS S.A. was established in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The Technical Training Center was opened. GM Fanuc Robotics Corporation was jointly established in the U.S.A. by Fanuc and General Motors. On July 1, the corporate name was changed from FUJITSU Fanuc LTD to Fanuc LTD. Fanuc AC servo motor was developed. The Motor Factory was completed.

1983 - 600 Fanuc ROBOTICS LIMITED was jointly established in the U.K. by Fanuc and The 600GROUP PLC.

1984 - Upon completion of the new Head Office, the CNC Factory, the Injection Molding Machine Factory and the Basic Research Laboratory at the foot of Mt. Fuji, the Headquarters was transffered from Hino City, Tokyo. The fully electric plastic injection molding machine, Fanuc AUTOSHOT, was developed.

1985 - With an increase in NC equipped machine tools, the demand for low cost CNCs expanded. In 1985, Fanuc developed a low cost CNC, Fanuc Series 0 for a large-volume low-end machine tool market. The Fanuc Series 0 was based on the technologies used in the Fanuc Series 6, especially its established and reliable software assets. The C model in the Series 0 featured high-speed computation and functional enhancements with its upgraded 32-bit microprocessors.

1986 - The Central Technical Center, the Robot Assembly Factory and the Production Technology Laboratory were constructed in the Headquarters area. GE Fanuc Automation Corporation was jointly estabished in the U.S.A. by Fanuc and General Electric. Under the new JV company, three operating companies, i.e., GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc. in the U.S.A., GE Fanuc Automation Europe S.A. in Luxembourg and Fanuc GE Automation Asia Ltd. in Japan were established. The Asian company was established in 1987.

1992 - Fanuc Robot School was established. GM Fanuc Robotics Corporation was restructured to Fanuc's wholly owned share holding company, Fanuc Robotics Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, Fanuc Robotics North America, Inc. and Fanuc Robotics Europe GmbH. A Prototype of the intelligent robot was built.

1995 - An intelligent mini-robot assembly was automated by a production prototype.

1997 - The new Servo Motor Factory was constructed. The factory features "robotization" which maximizes its overall operation hours to include night time and holidays, in addition to normal working hours. The longer operation hours result in lower unit costs, enabling us to produce highly competitive servo and spindle motors. Work process is "robotized" whenever and wherever possible, to constantly produce high quality motors and reduce lead time.

1999 - An intelligent robot was productized after the improvement.

2000 - The Sheet Metal Factory was completed. Fanuc India Limited was restructured to Fanuc's fully owned company. Fanuc now holds 90% of the shares of Fanuc INDIA and GE Fanuc Automation NA the remaining 10%. Being the majority shareholder, Fanuc has assumed full responsibility for the management of Fanuc INDIA.

2001 - The new Injection Molding Machine Factory was completed. Fanuc LASER SERVICE LTD was established.

2003 - Fanuc's Intelligent Robot was integrated into the 3rd generation unmanned machining system.

2009 - Production of Genkotsu Robots, which are parallel linked, started.

2012 - Subsidiaries in Europe were reorganized into Fanuc Europe Corporation.

2013 - Subsidiaries in America were reorganized into Fanuc America Corporation.

2015- The company was proud this year as they reached a robot volume of 400,000 units. Additionally, the highly advanced Collaborative Robot, CR-35iA, was developed, with a high payload and soft cover to avoid pinch points. Finally, more to celebrate, FIBER LASER was developed and ROBODRILL volume reached 200,000 units.

2016- ROBOSHOT volume reached 50,000 units, CNC volume reached 3,600,000 units, and the Mibu Factory was constructed.

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