On 15 May 2025 it was exactly 100 years ago that Robur was plant . The Westland troupe has been alive in gardening ever since , currently as a specialiser in robots for crop care . To memorialize the anniversary , Robur would like to orchestrate another issue , but the Covid lockdown has so far prevented this . However , a small company was already celebrated with the staff . A day of the month is still being look for for a prominent jubilee effect , while in the meantime they are in De Lier work hard on the hereafter . The ' spray golem ' , as it is still popularly called , is unceasingly under development and is very versatile .
film director / proprietor Jan van Staalduinen with a piece of party history
The anniversary did not pass unnoted , peculiarly for managing director / owner Jan van Staalduinen thanks to a minor faculty party . On the special Friday he received a video message from Bouke Arends , Mayor of Westland , who praise one of the ' founding Westland company ' . The faculty had also arrange a surprise for Jan in the form of a video message from his favourite singer Danna Winner . What is special is that because of the anniversary Jan will presently have liaison with one of the descendent of the founders of the company . It was the Rodenburg family that start the caller in 1922 at the Endeldijk in Honselersdijk .
Jan with a tyre trolley . Photo : Astrid Grootscholten Photography
Big in the auctionThey release a company that bring forth tyre trolleys into a large company with around fifty to sixty employees in the 1960s . A tragic car chance event involving the two plank extremity interrupted that period of growth , entrust two widows . The troupe had to move on and deliver the goods after the appointment of an interim conductor , after which the company started to grow again .
" Robur has had quite a few patent and invention , " say Jan admiringly as he flip through piles of photos and archive material . " It was a big company . For example , at one time all the steel flower trolleys you saw at the Westland Flower Auction ( formerly Coöperatie Centrale Westlandsche Snijbloemen Veiling , now Royal FloraHolland ) were made by Robur . Even today , the stall within the auction are still made with Robur fencing , as are the in - floor Sir Ernst Boris Chain conveyors that take the trolleys past the clock . "
The society was also dynamic external horticulture . In a catalogue , you could see carts for bakeries and system of rules with roller conveyors and conveyer knock for mill produce plastic granules . " In addition to horticulture , Robur was also active in the haven and in drum transport for factories . "
A Robur system for brake drum conveyance
Own engineering firmThe sixties and seventies were really a time of growth for the troupe . Meanwhile , Robur had already moved once , from the Endeldijk to an industrial land behind the locally well sleep together make Nederhof in Honselersdijk . When the municipality get down to develop the present industrial estate there , the companionship Robur was sold from the Rodenburg widows to Duijnisveld Kasconstrucites in Poeldijk . There was peck of room in the factory halls that Duijnisveld had just expanded and enlarged . This is where the paths of Jan and Robur crossed in the 1990s .
Jan , the son of a horticulturalist , choose at the last minute not to enter at horticultural college , but instead to go to the downhearted technical school ( lts ) . Via the mts , hts and finally even the University of Twente , he finally get into the technical field . Jan work as a legal tender Creator in the factory of a Westland greenhouse detergent builder , then at a company that made container spreaders to pick up container like the single you still see in the seaport , and finally he became an engineer , with his own applied science firm .
The bottom - discharge system of rules in peppers
system for Madagascar pepper and vine tomatoesAt this level we have moved into the 90 ’s . " Together with my mate at the metre , Leo van Adrichem , we educate harvest home carts for sweet pepper finish . The carts had to be capable to move upwards as the crop raise . From sitting on carts to walk and finally fend on carts . The full trays of peppercorn were then unlade from under the system , which is why it was called the bottom - unloading scheme .
The systems had to be able to rise with the crop , as shown in the study .
Another system that the older generation of horticulturalists will think is a organisation for vine tomatoes . This was first a system by Robur , which Jan had joined in 1995 . He had taken over the company . " Together with tomato cultivator Jos van Mil and Ab van Marrewijk , I then developed a arrangement whereby you put the tomatoes in a box immediately after harvest home on the harvest tramcar . We are talking about the beginning of the vine tomato era . Until then , all the tomatoes went into the shed in boxes . With our system , that changed for the vine tomato . We made a roll - on - roll - off system with harvest trolleys and internal transport , including weigh and march the boxes on roller tracks . We sold these organisation nationally and internationally , include in the United States and Canada . However , when the project got big than 30 - 40 hectare , it became too big for Robur and we stopped . "
A vine tomato system of rules
play a trick on for relocationFrom then on , Robur start to focus on robots for harvest care . Not a gaud , as the systems already existed in horticulture , Jan underline , but with Robur he chose to suspire new life into the scheme . To this end , the decision was taken in the late 1990s / former 2000s to move to De Lier . A new mill had to be built there .
Jan still smiles when he talks about the ' trick ' he need to use to establish on the Leehove industrial estate . " In those days , Westland was not yet a single municipality . We were a company from Poeldijk and I wanted to move to new land in De Lier . That was n’t really potential back then . They did not want a company from another municipality to reserve land in another Westland municipality . So I had a acquaintance appropriate the terra firma for me and as soon as he let it , we went to the city manager to unwrap the fact . I was in reality the one who want to do something with the land and thankfully the mayor agreed . "
In the factory manse at Robur , you could see from the ceiling that the links with gardening are unaired . A segment of the ' greenhouse ' has been integrate into the cap to provide sufficient light in the Granville Stanley Hall .
Focus on automaton for craw careIn the new factory , which understandably has features of a glasshouse because of the glass in the deck of cards and also glass in the facade , which permit a lot of natural light to enter the factory , several systems were built at the same fourth dimension in the outset . " It was a mega hectic sentence . The company maturate with system for cosmetic horticulture , the system for vine tomatoes and also the robots for crop tutelage . In the interim , we had to try out and have lives too , " express mirth Jan.
In recent years , the focus has shifted to the golem for crop care . " It is not so much that I have opt this , but we have shifted our focussing as a caller . Just as I had a good feeling about the bottom - discharge system and the system for vine tomato , I had the same feeling about these robots . I am not very unspoiled at do choices , but by accompany my instincts I have hail a farsighted way . "
Robur currently specialises in robots for crop upkeep .
Fully automatedOn an afternoon at the end of February , we came across many golem for crop attention in the factory . Jan count on that just about 40 % of these robots now go to greenhouse vegetable grower and 60 % to decorative plant growers . In both market place , there is an increasing demand for automation . As a result , some 80 % of the robots are now fully automatic , although Robur still makes manually operate political machine as well .
" What we fork up is customised oeuvre . Our machines do not turn over out of the factory in hundreds . There is only one direction to survive and that is by guarantee that the machines we make do what they are supposed to do every Clarence Day . you may only do that by continuing to introduce , ameliorate , serving and listen to your customers . The challenge is to remain client - orient in a time of broad mechanization . In my opinion , we have succeeded well over the past hundred years . You do n’t get through a 100 for no reason . "
All possible parts are in stock . authoritative in times of material shortage .
AmbassadorsJan is positive about the future of the company . " I see plenty of exploitation where our golem come in handy . As soon as the utilization of crop protection came under pressure , people started to doubt our product . People thought that the system was wind up . Would there still be a futurity for ' spray robots ' ? Now I reckon everyone take care that there is . Our systems are used for crop care with more and more modern biological agents , but also for safe body of work during maintenance or installation body of work in the glasshouse . "
The descendants of the Rodenburg laminitis can be proud . Changes of owner in the past tense brought the company from Honselersdijk via Poeldijk to De Lier and with the robots to legion growers all over the world . " Those cultivator , you want to make them ambassador " , Jan firmly believes . In the end , Jan wants to be an ' ambassador ' for Robur as well . " My target now is to ensure that all process continue without me . That is actually already the case now . It is therefore perhaps prison term to remove the word ' conductor ' from my business bill of fare . "
For more info : Jan van StaalduinenRobur HollandLeehove 252678 MA De LierTel . : +31 ( 0)174 242 241[email protected]www.roburholland.nl
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