CHICAGO — As the global manufacturing sector accelerates its transition toward fully autonomous, highly flexible production environments, Regal Rexnord Corporation is preparing to demonstrate how its comprehensive ecosystem of motion control, power transmission, and automation brands addresses the complex demands of modern smart factories.
At Automate 2026—scheduled to take place from June 22 to 25 in Chicago—Regal Rexnord will anchor its presence in the North Hall at Booth 17030. The company’s exhibition will feature advanced technologies from an expansive roster of industry-leading brands, including Thomson, Kollmorgen, Portescap, Warner Electric, ModSort, Huco, Micron, Boston Gear, Berg, Stearns, Leeson, and Bauer Gear Motor.
Designed specifically for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), machine builders, and system integrators, the showcase highlights the company’s strategic capability to provide end-to-end motion solutions. From ultra-precise servo control and heavy-duty robotics transfer units to integrated braking and modular conveying systems, the exhibit will underscore how integrated engineering can simplify machine layouts, reduce mechanical footprints, and shorten deployment timelines.
Main Facts: A Comprehensive Technological Showcase
Regal Rexnord’s exhibition at Automate 2026 is built around the modern factory’s need for agility, speed of deployment, and high reliability. The company is presenting an integrated suite of hardware designed to optimize robotic cells, automated material handling systems, packaging lines, and mobile robotic platforms.
Key highlights of the Regal Rexnord booth include:
- The Thomson Movotrak Cobot Transfer Unit (CTU): A collaborative seventh-axis solution engineered to extend the horizontal operating range of collaborative robots (cobots) by up to 10 meters, allowing a single unit to service multiple workstations or expansive process areas.
- Kollmorgen Essentials Motion Systems: A streamlined, highly configurable package combining servo motors, servo drives, and single-cable power and data technology, newly expanded to include the PCMM2G Essentials controller and high-voltage drive capabilities up to 4 kW.
- Warner Electric Integrated Position Brake: An innovative spring-applied, electrically released braking mechanism featuring embedded absolute position sensing, collapsing two vital drivetrain components into a single, space-saving assembly.
- A Broad Industrial Ecosystem: Hands-on displays featuring motion control, precision gearing, sensing, and power transmission components from a dozen specialized Regal Rexnord brands tailored for rigorous industrial environments.
Chronology: The Evolution Toward Modular Automation
The unveiling of Regal Rexnord’s advanced lineup at Automate 2026 represents the culmination of years of strategic acquisitions, engineering refinements, and portfolio consolidations aimed at serving the fast-growing industrial automation and robotics sectors.
The Foundation of Motion Brands
Over the past decade, Regal Rexnord has systematically integrated some of the most respected names in motion control and power transmission. Brands like Kollmorgen (renowned for high-performance servo systems), Thomson (a pioneer in linear motion technology), and Portescap (specialists in miniature, high-precision motors) established the foundational technology stack. Meanwhile, legacy power transmission giants such as Boston Gear, Stearns, and Bauer Gear Motor provided the robust mechanical backbone necessary for heavy industrial operations.
The Integration Era
As manufacturers began demanding tighter integration between electrical motion controls and mechanical power transmission, Regal Rexnord accelerated its cross-brand development strategies. The focus shifted from supplying standalone components to engineering interoperable ecosystems. This evolution allowed machine builders to source complete, pre-validated motion chains from a single corporate entity, drastically reducing engineering overhead.
The Road to Automate 2026
In the lead-up to the June 2026 exhibition, Regal Rexnord has systematically rolled out advanced hardware iterations tailored for flexibility. Innovations such as the expansion of the Kollmorgen Essentials line and the refinement of collaborative robot seventh-axis systems (like the Movotrak CTU) directly reflect feedback from automation engineers wrestling with floor-space constraints and the demand for rapid reconfiguration. The showcase in Chicago serves as a public milestone for these integrated technologies, demonstrating how disparate engineering disciplines—linear motion, servo control, braking, and sensing—converge within a unified smart factory framework.
Supporting Data: Engineering Precision in Action
Modern industrial automation leaves little room for inefficiency. To understand the significance of Regal Rexnord’s showcase, one must examine the specific engineering metrics and operational advantages of the core products being demonstrated at Booth 17030.
1. Expanding Collaborative Workspaces: Thomson Movotrak CTU
Collaborative robots (cobots) have transformed manufacturing by working safely alongside human operators. However, their physical reach is traditionally restricted to the immediate radius of their fixed base. The Thomson Movotrak Cobot Transfer Unit directly resolves this bottleneck.
- Horizontal Reach: Expands operating range by up to 10 meters, enabling a single cobot to tend multiple CNC machines, assembly jigs, or packaging stations sequentially.
- Structural Rigidity: Utilizes a robust dual linear-unit design that maximizes moment load capacity and mechanical stiffness, minimizing vibration during rapid acceleration and deceleration cycles.
- Safety and Integration: Features built-in collision detection across the entire seventh axis, alongside Freedrive programming capabilities, allowing technicians to easily teach and set linear waypoints directly during cell setup without complex programming scripts.
2. Simplifying Servo Architecture: Kollmorgen Essentials Motion Systems
Specifying and commissioning multi-axis motion systems has historically required deep engineering expertise and time-consuming component matching. The Kollmorgen Essentials portfolio is engineered to streamline this process.
- System Architecture: Combines matching servo motors, servo drives, and streamlined single-cable power and data technology into a unified, interoperable package.
- Network Compatibility: Features native support for major industrial Ethernet control protocols, ensuring seamless integration into existing factory automation architectures.
- Recent Expansion: The introduction of the PCMM2G Essentials controller and new high-voltage drive capabilities extending up to 4 kW opens the system up to more demanding applications, including heavy packaging lines, high-speed warehouse automation, industrial material handling, and metal forming.
3. Space-Saving Safety: Warner Electric Integrated Position Brake
In compact machine designs, every millimeter of drivetrain length matters. Traditionally, engineers had to allocate separate physical spaces for holding/stopping brakes and absolute position encoders.
- Dual Functionality: The Warner Electric Integrated Position Brake combines a spring-applied, electrically released friction brake with embedded absolute position sensing in a single, cohesive unit.
- Footprint Reduction: By eliminating the need for a separate encoder assembly, OEMs can achieve significantly shorter drivetrain designs.
- Target Applications: Particularly valuable in constrained spaces found within mobile autonomous robots (AMRs), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and compact vertical material-handling systems.
Official Responses and Industry Perspectives
Industry leaders and corporate representatives emphasize that today’s automation buyers are no longer looking merely for high-performing individual components; they demand holistic, adaptable systems that can be integrated with minimal friction.
Automation teams across automotive, electronics, logistics, and consumer goods sectors are facing unprecedented labor shortages, fluctuating consumer demand, and relentless pressure to optimize floor space. In response, equipment manufacturers must build machines that are inherently modular.
According to Regal Rexnord engineering and marketing leadership, the curated selection of brands presented at Automate 2026 is a direct answer to these macro-trends. By bringing together Thomson, Kollmorgen, Warner Electric, and others under one corporate vision, the company aims to reassure OEMs and system integrators that complex multi-axis motion, precise braking, and reliable power transmission do not have to come at the cost of complicated supply chains or prolonged integration timelines.
Representatives will be on-site at Booth 17030 in the North Hall throughout the four-day event to walk attendees through live demonstrations, discuss application-specific challenges, and provide technical guidance on deploying scalable motion architecture.
Implications: What This Means for the Future of Smart Manufacturing
The technologies highlighted by Regal Rexnord at Automate 2026 point toward broader, long-term shifts in how industrial machinery is conceived, built, and operated.
1. The Rise of Hyper-Flexible Production Lines
Traditional manufacturing lines were built for mass production with rigid, single-purpose machinery. As consumer preferences shift toward mass customization, factories must be capable of pivoting production tasks on short notice. Products like the Thomson Movotrak CTU—which allows a single robot to traverse vast distances across a production floor—exemplify this shift. Fixed automation is rapidly giving way to mobile, reconfigurable, and multi-functional robotic cells.
2. Streamlining the Engineering Lifecycle
As machinery grows more complex, the engineering talent gap remains a persistent challenge for machine builders. Solutions that simplify specification, configuration, and programming—such as Kollmorgen’s Essentials line and Freedrive waypoint programming—reduce the barrier to entry for advanced automation. By shortening the commissioning phase, OEMs can deliver machines to market faster and reduce total cost of ownership for end-users.
3. Miniaturization and Space Optimization
With real estate at a premium in modern warehouses and micro-factories, machine footprints are shrinking. Component integration, as demonstrated by the Warner Electric Integrated Position Brake, is becoming a mandatory design paradigm. Expect to see accelerated industry-wide adoption of multi-functional hardware that merges sensing, actuation, and safety features into singular, compact modules.
Conclusion
Regal Rexnord’s presence at Automate 2026 underscores the company’s evolution into a powerhouse of integrated motion control and power transmission. For manufacturers, machine builders, and system integrators navigating the complexities of the modern industrial landscape, the exhibition offers a clear roadmap: through smart component integration, advanced robotics, and modular design, the smart factory of the future is becoming more adaptable, efficient, and accessible than ever before.
