Nipper B.V.

Nipper B.V. is a Dutch maker of driverless pallet transport vehicles and electric stretch hood packaging machines, based at Streep 4 in Bergeijk, the Netherlands. The company organises its business into two product lines, Nipper Mobile Robots and Nipper Packaging, which it designs as modular building blocks that can work together on a production floor or be added to existing equipment. It states that it has completed more than 350 turnkey projects, and it offers advice, installation, operator training and ongoing support under service-level agreements through a customer support portal.

The mobile robot range consists of three omnidirectional models. REX lifts closed-bottom pallets such as CHEP, GMA and EUR 1 types from the long side to a height of up to 1.10 m. RISE lifts to 74 cm and is built to hand loads over to pallet lifts, roller conveyors and transport systems at different levels, with a small turning circle. ROVE carries pallets and carriers on an electric lift rated up to 1,200 kg, travels at up to 1.5 m/s and recharges at a contactless fast-charging station when idle or low on battery. All models use low forks with an 88 mm fork height, navigate by laser scanners against a digital map of natural landmarks without wires, magnets or reflectors, run BlueBotics navigation software with WiFi fleet management, and carry 360-degree safety scanners; the company says they are designed to meet ISO 3691-4 for driverless industrial trucks. Operators use a multi-language colour touchscreen, and an LED bar shows vehicle status. Nipper quotes a return on investment for ROVE often within 12 months and a figure of 5.4 FTE replaced per robot, without stating the underlying conditions.

The packaging line covers the compact SHARPHOOD stretch hood machine, aimed at existing lines and upper floors, and the STRONGHOOD, which handles mixed pallet sizes in random order at up to 100 pallets per hour, wraps loads up to 3 m high, measures loads with an ultrasonic sensor and can run two film units. Both machines are fully electric and use no gas.

Automation supplier B&R has published a case study describing Nipper's move from a separate PLC and standalone operator panel to an integrated B&R architecture built on the Power Panel C80, B&R Vision for camera-based image processing and barcode reading, B&R safety technology and the Automation Studio engineering environment, giving the vehicles centimetre-accurate navigation at speeds up to 1.5 m/s. Chief technology officer Ellen van Nunen is quoted on the dynamic environments in which the robots operate, and Nipper is evaluating the same architecture for its stretch hooders.

Published customer cases include Supura, North Filtration, Intopack, STG, M&G Group, Emballator UK and Bunzl. Target sectors named by the company include pharma, plastics, food and consumer goods, cosmetics and personal care, electronics manufacturing and third-party logistics. Prospective customers can test both robots and stretch hood machines with their own pallets at the Bergeijk factory.