MODEX C-Suite Interview with Harold Vanasse: The perfect blend of automation and sustainability

MMH: What is your number one takeaway from MODEX 2024?

 

Vanasse: The industry is alive and well. It's not a sleepy little backwater industry. The record attendance for MODEX is rivaling the ProMat show, but more importantly, all the automation and technology was there on display and being demonstrated by more than 1,000 exhibitors. This is a very busy, advanced, non-stagnant industry where a lot of innovation is happening. For example, the amount of automation that was being presented at the show—and technology behind it—were amazing.

 

MMH: How is EnerSys responding to these market trends?

 

Vanasse: Being in the battery and charger world (the “power” world) and being able to absolutely contribute to these trends is really cool. It’s not this old school industrial place and the industry setting that it was even 20 years ago. It's more like, “Wait a minute, we're in the cool kids’ section of the trade shows now.” If we look at automation, we showed a functioning wireless charger, charging an AGV with our lithium battery, and we’re taking orders now for those products. Wireless charging provides true automation when you have an AGV, so companies aren’t relying on a human to plug in or maintain “hot shoes” in an automated setting. That always garners a lot of interest. Finally, we offer a complete line of maintenance-free batteries requiring no watering, changing or equalization. They support flexible workflows with opportunity charging and offer time-tested durability and optimal performance.