The new production capacity supports Ouman’s rapid growth in building automation products
Ouman celebrates the opening of a new production line today in its factory in Kuressaare, Estonia. The robotic assembly line raises the surface mount capacity of the factory by 50 percent.
“The new capacity is very welcome indeed. The energy crisis has increased the sales of our products considerably, and we have had to buy surface mounting capacity from elsewhere for some time already. It’s great to be able to do everything in-house,” says Matti Lipsanen, Ouman Group’s CEO.
The main reason for the increased demand is rising prices for electricity and district heating. This motivates housing cooperatives and other large real estate owners to invest in energy optimization. This is reflected in Ouman´s revenue from its building automation business, which grew 30 percent in the first quarter of 2023. In 2022, the revenue of the whole group grew 15 percent, reaching 45 million euros.
Using machine vision, the new robotic assembly line rapidly attaches components on circuit boards and accurately solders them in the right places. The SMT (surface mount technology) line can mount up to 95,000 components per hour or 26 components per second. The value of the new production line is 1.5 million euros and it has been delivered by Yamaha Robotics SMT, in cooperation with CORE-emt.
“The robots will take care of the mounting as much as possible, and the rest is done by hand. All of our unit controllers and system devices contain circuit boards, so this is an essential part of production,” says Erik Keerberg, CEO of Ouman Estonia.
There are two previous SMT lines in the factory with a combined capacity of about 45,000 components per hour. One of the two old lines will now be utilized more for R&D purposes.
Fabian Hielte, the Chairman of the Board of Ouman’s owner company, Engströmgruppen, will attend the opening ceremony, as well as the CEO, Alexander Helm. The Minister of Justice, Kalle Laanet, will also participate, as well as the city administration of Kuressaare and the media.
Ouman founded the factory in Kuressaare, Saaremaa, in 1998. Since then, the employee count has increased from 12 to almost 200. Each year, Ouman produces around one and a half million products, and almost all of them are manufactured in Kuressaare. A small portion is made in Kempele, Finland.
The Finnish company, Ouman, represents a new world, where energy is used wisely – everywhere and in every moment. Ouman produces yearly 1.4 million products for controlling building technology processes with a revenue of 45 million euros. The company has 300 employees in Finland, Estonia, and Sweden.
Contact
CEO Matti Lipsanen, Ouman
+385 40 750 3953