IN Brief:
- Comau is introducing its Hygienic Oil robot range for food handling at Cibus Tec in Parma, 27–30 October.
- Automha is demonstrating Quaterways multidirectional shuttles, AutosatGTR pallet storage and its AWMS warehouse management software.
- NSF H1 lubricants address incidental food-contact risk but do not certify complete robots or establish throughput at a new installed customer site.
Comau and Automha are presenting a combined food and beverage automation portfolio at Cibus Tec 2026 in Parma, running from 27 to 30 October. Comau is introducing a Hygienic Oil family of robots for food-handling applications, while Automha is displaying multidirectional shuttle, high-density pallet storage and warehouse management systems. The companies are demonstrating technologies across production and intralogistics, but have not identified a newly commissioned facility using the complete portfolio together.
The group says the combined portfolio covers material receipt, product handling, processing, picking, packing, palletising, automated storage and outbound distribution. Those activities form a connected operational sequence, but different equipment types must still interface with one another and with the facility’s production controls. The presentation does not identify a new customer installation or confirm that every element shown has been deployed together at a single operating site.
The new Hygienic Oil family draws on Comau’s Rebel SCARA, Racer and NJ articulated robot ranges and extends to palletising configurations. The robots use NSF H1 food-grade lubricants, a classification relevant to incidental food contact with lubricant. It does not, on its own, certify a complete robot for direct food contact or establish suitability for every washdown environment. Plant designers must assess exposed surfaces, sealing, cleanability, contamination pathways and the specific product being handled before specifying equipment near open food.
A robot working with unpackaged food faces different risks from one transferring closed boxes at the end of a packaging line. Comau says selected Hygienic Oil applications can operate without protective robot covers, which may simplify access and handling in some processes, but that claim remains dependent on the configuration and hygiene assessment. The company also has food-contact material-compliant robots in its wider portfolio; compliance attached to one product or component should not be assumed to extend automatically to every robot at the stand.
Comau is presenting a four-axis S-18-1.7 HO robot and a Racer-5 SE food-handling cell developed with Progea Leonardo and Camozzi. A separate packaged-product pick-and-place cell uses its MyCo collaborative robot with Innovision, while MATE wearable assistive equipment is also included. These demonstrations cover several distinct handling tasks rather than a standard production line with one published throughput figure. Cycle times, grippers and protective measures would need to be determined for each product and installation.
Automha’s Quaterways shuttle travels in four directions through designated rack aisles and accesses deep storage lanes, with movement coordinated through Automha Warehouse Management System (AWMS). A multidirectional arrangement can serve storage positions without assigning a separate lift truck to every movement. However, access to deep lanes, routing conflicts and retrieval sequences affect achievable throughput, which must be tested against pallet or tote dimensions, available aisles and the warehouse’s order profile.
The company is also presenting AutosatGTR, an evolution of its pallet shuttle technology intended for multi-depth storage. Storing pallets several positions deep can increase the density of a rack installation, but it also changes how inventory is accessed and replenished. Product rotation rules, pallet sizes, stock-keeping unit distribution and replenishment frequency determine whether a high-density configuration suits the operation. A single technology demonstration cannot establish output across all warehouse layouts.
The portfolio brings together physical equipment and software coordination, with Automha addressing storage and movement and Comau contributing manipulation and robotised production applications. The firms also identify Invent as part of the integrated offer. To turn those capabilities into a working facility, designers would still need to establish handling rates at each interface, the location of buffers, pallet or tote specifications, safety boundaries, clean-down procedures and what happens when a machine is unavailable.
Food and beverage warehouses must match pallet identification, batch rotation and expiry-date controls to the sequence in which production releases stock. Deep-lane storage can suit repeated loads of the same product but can complicate selective retrieval when batches and destinations differ. The exhibitors have not released a measured performance comparison for a customer site combining all the displayed products, so productivity and labour claims cannot be treated as verified outcomes of this Cibus Tec presentation.
The confirmed new product is Comau’s Hygienic Oil robot family; Automha’s Quaterways, AutosatGTR and AWMS are being shown as part of the integrated offering in Hall 2, stand K038. The next evidence of its application would be a specified customer project, validated interface requirements and operating data from an installed system. None of those has been announced with the 27 October exhibition programme.
