Formova (formerly JBT Automated Systems)

Formova, formerly JBT Automated Systems and a JBT Marel Company, supplies automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and mobile automation systems for material handling. The Chalfont, Pennsylvania operation has provided AGV systems for more than 40 years, with experience dating to the mid-1980s, and reports more than 700 systems in operation worldwide. Rather than selling vehicles alone, Formova delivers what it calls Total Automation Intelligence: a unified system of vehicles, software, and service designed to coordinate material movement for mission-critical operations.

Its vehicle range covers standard and custom AGV designs such as forked, unit-load, and towing/tugger vehicles, including the CB1500 pallet-handling AGV. The company's mot.OS orchestration software controls multiple fleets from multiple manufacturers within a single system, allowing mixed-vendor fleets to be coordinated centrally. Formova serves a broad set of industries, including hospitals, automotive, general manufacturing, food and beverage, warehousing, fast-moving consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, building materials, and tissue, paper and packaging. Typical applications include just-in-time parts delivery on automotive lines, hygienic transport of ingredients and finished goods, automated pallet transport and zone-to-zone transfers in warehouses, and delivery of medications, linens, meals, and sterile supplies in hospitals.

The company positions itself as a long-term automation partner that works with customer teams from system design through deployment and ongoing global support, emphasizing rapid response and worldwide service coverage. Formova is part of JBT Marel Corporation, the food-processing and automation group whose history traces to John Bean in 1884.