Nilfisk

Nilfisk is a Danish maker of professional cleaning equipment headquartered in Copenhagen and listed as CPH:NLFSK. The firm was founded in 1906 by Peder Andersen Fisker and Hans Marius Nielsen as Fisker & Nielsen, and initially made electric motors for ventilators and drilling machines. In 1989 it was taken over by the NKT group, in 1994 it bought America's Advance Machine Company, and in 1998 it was renamed Nilfisk-Advance and merged with Euroclean/Kent. Between 2000 and 2011 the company acquired several more firms, and in 2015 it shortened its name to Nilfisk. In October 2017 it was spun off from NKT and operates as an independent listed company employing about 4,800 people worldwide. Robotics is a late addition in this history to a rich record in cleaning machines: the maker introduced the SC50 autonomous scrubber, regarded as its flagship product in this field. The navigation software comes from an outside partner, the BrainOS platform of Brain Corp. Data on the number of autonomous scrubbers sold and their share of revenue are not public in our overview. The context in which such machines reach facilities is described in “Commercial Cleaning Robots in Practice”.

In Nilfisk's robotic offering the key line is the Liberty SC50, described in our overview as the Nilfisk Liberty SC50. It is an autonomous ride-on floor scrubber built on Brain Corp's BrainOS platform. The maker gives an operating speed of up to 1.055 m/s and a runtime of up to 10 hours with lithium-ion power. With AGM batteries the machine can handle up to 55,000 square feet on one cycle, with a theoretical throughput of nearly 21,000 square feet per hour. An optional UVGI module adds disinfection with ultraviolet radiation, which makes sense in facilities with heightened hygiene requirements. Uses are retail, logistics and airports, that is, large open surfaces. The manufacturer does not disclose a price publicly, and cost information requires contact with the sales department. The machine is of the ride-on class, that is, larger than robots guided behind an operator. How to assess the cost of such an investment is shown in “Humanoid Robot TCO: How to Calculate Total Cost”, and you will find an overview of the category in service robots and in the section “Warehouse and logistics”. The manufacturer offers AGM or lithium-ion batteries, which affects runtime and operating cost.

The Nilfisk Liberty SC50 competes in the autonomous scrubber segment, which differs from the market for small cleaning robots. Its direct rivals are rather America's Tennant and other brands using the BrainOS platform, such as Nobles, than home robots. Nilfisk's differentiator is the UVGI disinfection option. Among makers of commercial cleaning robots in our overview are also Gausium with the Gausium Scrubber 50 Pro, Canada's Avidbots with the Avidbots Neo 2 and LionsBot International with the LionsBot R3 Scrub Pro. For comparison, Pudu Robotics represents a smaller scale. Nilfisk's strength is a recognisable brand and a service network built over decades; its weakness is the lack of a public price and of a confirmed presence of the SC50 on the Polish market. Data on market shares in autonomous cleaning are not available. The market for autonomous scrubbers is moving towards more brands using ready-made navigation platforms, which reduces differences in autonomy itself and shifts competition to service and equipment options.

The manufacturer gives no price for the SC50 and no data on distribution in Poland. The professional autonomous cleaning segment is usually served by local cleaning-equipment dealers, but for this model that has not been confirmed from sources. We have no documented Polish deployments. For large warehouse and retail areas the solution is worth considering, provided local service is available. Before buying, therefore, ask about spare-part availability, service response time and operator training. The investment context is described in “Poland's Robotization Tax Relief”. It is also worth asking the dealer whether a version with lithium-ion batteries is available. Also ask about the warranty terms.

The Liberty SC50 is a sensible candidate for large halls, airports and retail facilities, with a UVGI disinfection option and a brand with more than a century of tradition. A public price and a confirmed channel in Poland are missing, so before deciding you need to collect offers from dealers and make sure about service. For small areas it is decidedly too large a machine. At this stage it is an offer for demanding customers.