Lisbon, October 2024 – The building cleaning industry faces a number of challenges, including a shortage of skilled workers, intense margin and cost pressures, and a reputation as an unattractive profession. In this demanding environment, autonomous system solutions and digitalized work processes, such as Nexaro's cobotic approach, are becoming increasingly important for the cleaning industry. During the award ceremony on October 3, 2024, the ECHA expert jury chose the Nexaro NR 1500 robot vacuum cleaner, which also gained the prestigious GS seal issued by TÜV SÜD for professional building cleaning, as the winner in the “Technological Innovation of the Year” category, showing the robot vacuum cleaner's ability to prevail over its competitors.
The Nexaro NR 1500 autonomous robot vacuum cleaner produced by the Wuppertal start-up is the first compact robot vacuum cleaner in the world to meet the latest international safety standard IEC 63327 for commercial cleaning robots as well as the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. This was confirmed by the independent testing body TÜV Süd. Furthermore, the solution has been awarded the renowned GS test mark by TÜV-SÜD.
"Digital approaches and smart technologies have become an important aspect in professional building cleaning. By using autonomous solutions like our Nexaro NR 1500 compact robot vacuum cleaner and the associated software solution, the Nexaro HUB, not only are work processes and therefore cleaning specialists relieved of burdensome tasks, but more thorough cleaning and the precise mapping of cleaning services open up a whole new dimension of scalability—all while complying with the full range of quality and safety standards," explains Dr. Henning Hayn, General Manager at Nexaro. “We are very pleased and proud that the expert jury also saw the potential in our product and was convinced by the properties of our innovative cobotic approach.”
The European Cleaning & Hygiene Award
The European Cleaning & Hygiene Awards is the only pan-European program for the industry, recognizing and rewarding standards of excellence in areas such as customer relations, smart technology adoption, diversity and inclusion, industry image enhancement, leadership, new business start-ups, sustainability, and emerging talent.
The main objective pursued by the European Cleaning Journal (ECJ), the founder of the awards, is to promote the highest professional standards and to recognize expertise in our industry—on the magazine's pages, via its website and by recognizing the phenomenal work of the industry at this unique celebration. Since its launch in 2016, the Gala Dinner, which always takes place in a different European city, has been considered one of the most prestigious ceremonies for our industry.
The cobotic approach
Nexaro's holistic cobotic system solution, consisting of the Nexaro NR 1500 autonomous robot vacuum cleaner and the associated control software, Nexaro HUB, represents true collaboration between humans and cutting-edge autonomous robot vacuum cleaner technology. The vacuum robot and the software solution were tested for use in professional building cleaning and significantly further developed based on the knowledge gained. The key to this approach is to increase efficiency and quality while reducing costs. The flexible use of robot vacuum cleaners significantly reduces the burden on cleaning staff in their everyday work. This is achieved by eliminating the particularly strenuous dry cleaning of floors and work during off-peak times – especially at night.
The Nexaro NR 1500 is the world's first compact robot vacuum cleaner to meet the latest IEC 63327 international safety standard for commercial cleaning robots. This was recently tested and confirmed by the independent testing body TÜV SÜD. In addition, the Nexaro NR 1500 has been issued with the renowned GS test mark by TÜV SÜD. This certifies that all requirements of the German Product Safety Act (ProdGS) are met.
About Nexaro
Nexaro is a start-up from Wuppertal, Germany, and part of the Vorwerk Group, which has been synonymous with the highest quality since 1883 – and is today a globally active group with a turnover of €3.2 billion in sales and 9,127 employees in over 60 countries (as of: 2023 Annual Report). As an independent company within the Vorwerk Group, Nexaro benefits, on the one hand, from the mutual transfer of knowledge and technology and, on the other hand, the necessary freedom to develop its business model and become a driving force in the cleaning industry with the innovative Nexaro cobotic approach. Intensive research and development work as well as collaborations with leading companies in the industry have enabled the autonomous robot vacuum cleaner Nexaro NR 1500 and the associated software solution, Nexaro HUB, to be developed. In addition to focusing on the highest quality, other priorities for Nexaro are the topics of data security and sustainability.