BAY CITY, MI—SK Siltron CSS, a semiconductor wafer manufacturer, recently announced plans to invest $300 million over the next three years to provide manufacturing and R&D capabilities of advanced materials for electric vehicles in a new facility here.

FRANKFURT—Preliminary data by the International Federation of Robotics shows a 19 percent sales increase of industrial robots to China in 2020, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, nearly 167,000 industrial robots were delivered there last year.

DIXON, CA—Henkel has achieved zero production waste to landfill status at its resin 3D printing facility here.

MONZA, Italy—Polyolefin manufacturer Borealis has announced that it is installing a solar photovoltaic rooftop array at its plant here to generate electricity for production purposes. Interestingly, the array's modules use Borealis' Quentys encapsulant film technology.

ANN ARBOR, MI—North American robot orders in the first quarter of 2021 were up 20 percent over the same period in 2020, according to industry statistics released by the Association for Advancing Automation.

WAVERLY, IA—United Equipment Accessories (UEA), a manufacturer of slip rings, rotary unions and other motion control components, will deploy Microfactories from Bright Machines Inc. at its assembly plant here.

SPRINGFIELD, TN—Tier 1 automotive supplier Martinrea International Inc. is investing $40 million to expand its assembly plant here. The project is expected to create 97 new jobs.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL—Jabil Inc. is developing a novel omnidirectional sensor for mobile robotic and industrial equipment.

OSHINO, Japan—FANUC Corp. has produced its 750,000th industrial robot, representing a record high point in the robotics industry.

FRANKFURT, Germany—Sales of industrial robots in China increased by 19 percent in 2020, according to preliminary data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).