FANUC History
We’ve come a long way
From its inception in 1956, when company founder Dr. Seiuemon Inaba first pioneered the concept of numerical control (NC), FANUC has been at the forefront of a worldwide manufacturing revolution. Evolving from the automation of a single piece of machinery in the late 1950s to the automation of entire production lines in the following decades, Dr. Inaba initiated this ground-breaking development when he invented the first electrical pulse motor, programmed a numerical control for it and put it into a machine tool.
Always striving to push back the boundaries of automation, increase productivity, produce a better product and reduce costs, Dr. Inaba and his team followed this up with a robot that employed the same principles to load the machine tool.
Dr. Inaba's work soon meant that other manufacturers and engineering companies around the world were also benefiting from this technology, lowering costs and increasing productivity. And with world-beating products like the ROBOCUT, ROBODRILL and ROBOSHOT hitting factory floors through the 70s and 80s, FANUC was able to provide optimised solutions for an increasingly wide range of industrial applications and customers. In Japan, FANUC had become the first company to build and operate an automated factory with NC machine tools and robots.
Sixty years since its founding and, with more than 4,4 million CNC controls and 680,000 robots installed worldwide, FANUC is the leading global manufacturer of factory automation. Yet one thing remains the same: FANUC's deep commitment to pushing back the boundaries of automation and helping its customers to optimise their production processes.
