JLS Automation is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year, and its long-standing commitment to revolutionizing industrial automation with its robotic packaging systems.

JLS Automation started as JL Souser & Associates in 1955, a manufacturers’ representative firm that sold power transmission equipment. Since taking over the company, current President and CEO Craig Souser has transformed the company into what it is today — a best-in-class, trusted supplier of hygienic robotic packaging solutions for food handling.

“Throughout our 65-year history, JLS has evolved to meet the needs of our customers every step of the way. We have grown with the food packaging industry, and will continue to innovate as the market demands new standards in quality, sanitation and technical expertise,” said Souser.

Souser expanded the product range to include variable frequency drives and started providing application engineering assistance. In 1991, JLS provided systems engineering and shortly after introduced a field service offering to support its engineered systems. Two years later, the company entered the packaging automation segment. Since then, its custom vision-guided primary and secondary robotic packaging systems, high-speed leak detection systems and end-of-arm tooling have been awarded several patents.

This year, JLS launched its patent-pending Peregrine™, a vision-guided robotic cartoning system that uses a proprietary positive carton transport (PCT) system and game-changing TRAK technology. The company also developed a high-payload bulk product handling solution for transporting large cuts of protein this year. Both solutions were the result of customer demand and JLS’ commitment to innovative solutions for hygienic packaging applications.