Most people encounter robots most often at home: a small robotic vacuum quietly navigating around the furniture, occasionally annoying the cat, and returning to its charging dock with quiet satisfaction. It is easy to smile at. But strip away the domestic setting and the underlying principle is exactly the same one that was recently put to work inside a 19-metre-high industrial storage tank in Germany: a machine that takes on a tedious, repetitive task so that a person does not have to. The difference is the scale of the challenge, and the scale of the results.
The right tool in the right place
Not every technology is ready for every environment. Knowing where to deploy it, and where not to, is just as important as the technology itself.
KAEFER focuses its robotic capabilities on service fields where the technology has reached a mature stage of development: surface preparation, coating application, and inspections. These are areas where robotic solutions are already proven to deliver real value in productivity, quality, and safety. But technology readiness is only one part of the equation. Market and customer demand matter equally. Robotic deployment works best where clients understand the benefit and where project conditions genuinely support it. Both need to come together for it to make sense.
This is why KAEFER runs a dedicated robotic trial process before scaling any deployment. New technologies are tested in controlled conditions, proof-of-concept is validated, and operators are trained and ready before day one on a live project. Considered. Tested. Delivered where it counts.
When the numbers speak for themselves
When the right conditions align, the results are striking.
On selected offshore projects, production rates have reached 300 to 500 percent higher than manual work in surface protection. At a nuclear construction site, coating removal reached over 40 square metres per hour, compared to one square metre per hour manually. Projects have been completed with 50 percent fewer personnel on site.
These outcomes do not happen automatically. They happen when the right technology meets the right project environment, when the service field is mature enough, when the client sees the value, and when teams are properly trained and prepared. That combination is what KAEFER looks for before recommending a robotic solution to any client.
Inside the tank
Abstract numbers only tell part of the story. A tank lining project in Germany shows what robotic deployment actually looks like when those conditions come together.
The project involved a large industrial storage tank, 40 metres in diameter and 19 metres high, with a total surface area of over 4,000 square metres. The tank had been used as a kind of biogas facility, processing beet residues, bacteria, and lime. Over time, this had left heavy calcium deposits on the walls, along with multiple layers of existing coating, some of which proved extremely difficult to remove even at 3,000 bar water pressure. The environment was challenging from the start.
The original plan called for conventional blasting and coating, with high-pressure washing at 3,000 bar as preparation. Then came a different question: what if a robotic system could handle the surface preparation entirely?
KAEFER partnered with Vertidrive, deploying their V700 magnetic wall-climbing robot for both the ultra-high-pressure washing phase and the abrasive blasting phase. The robot could operate on vertical walls and ceilings, handling forces and reaching areas that would be physically demanding or impractical for manual work alone.
What worked well:
The high-pressure washing phase ran smoothly. The robot delivered cleaning rates of 30 to 40 square metres per hour, a rate that would have been impossible to sustain manually. Critically, no scaffolding was required. The time and cost savings from eliminating scaffold erection and dismantling alone made a significant difference to the overall project economics.
The blasting phase delivered rates of 20 to 30 square metres per hour with the robot, compared to around 6 square metres per hour manually. Again, no scaffold was needed for the robot itself, though a working platform was used to give the operator line of sight at height, where dust made visibility at 20 metres essentially zero.
The operators, initially subcontractors who approached the technology with some scepticism, quickly changed their view. Once they experienced how physically undemanding the work was compared to conventional blasting, their reaction was straightforwardly positive. One of the project team’s observations captures it well: the person operating the robot may sit in a chair. The physical burden is removed almost entirely.
1: High-pressure washing 2: Close-up of the old coating 3: Vertidrive 4: Manual application of the new coating
What required adaptation:
The project also surfaced real challenges that any team considering robotic deployment should understand. Weld seams in the tank interrupted the robot’s magnetic grip, requiring the operator to navigate carefully around them. During the washing phase, steam at 70 degrees Celsius created sauna-like visibility conditions inside the tank, requiring regular breaks to allow vapour to clear. During blasting, dust at height made visual control of the robot difficult, which is why the working platform was introduced.
The robot also consumed more abrasive material than conventional methods, averaging around 50 kilograms per square metre compared to a manual average of 30 kilograms. The reason is straightforward: when operating at distance with limited visibility, operators tend to overlap passes more than they would working up close. This is a known trade-off, and one that teams can manage with experience.
Additional challenges emerged mid-project. Multiple layers of coating that had not been anticipated required extra removal effort, adding time and cost. Water that had accumulated between the tank’s double walls over many years created further complications, requiring welding work and support from KAEFER’s insulation team to resolve. These were not robotic challenges specifically, but they are a reminder that complex industrial assets rarely behave exactly as expected.
Despite all of this, the project finished on schedule, within budget, and with no scaffolding required for the surface preparation work across more than 4,000 square metres of tank surface.
The quietest result is often the most important
One of the most important outcomes of robotic deployment is one that does not always feature prominently in project reports: fewer people in harm’s way.
In the German tank project, the calcium deposits and old coating layers created significant debris during high-pressure washing. With a robotic system, the operator works at a safe distance from the surface. The physical exposure that would come with manual work at height, in confined spaces, with high-pressure equipment, is substantially reduced.
On offshore projects in Norway, where KAEFER has deployed robotic systems for light demolition and surface pre-treatment, the result has been a reduced number of personnel on board, less exposure to physically demanding and hazardous tasks, and zero lost-time incidents on those operations. Safety is never a trade-off. Robotics, applied thoughtfully, helps keep that commitment.
People first
The most effective robotic deployments are not the ones where machines replace people. They are the ones where people and machines work together, each doing what they do best.
When KAEFER deploys robotic technology on a project, it is trained operators and applicators who make it work. Robots handle the physically demanding, repetitive, or hazardous tasks. People focus on the work that requires judgment, skill, and experience. In the most technically demanding areas, human expertise remains irreplaceable. The coating application on the tank, for example, was carried out entirely by hand.
This co-working model is also a response to a real structural challenge in the industry. In markets like Germany, the demand for qualified applicators is outpacing supply. Robotic technology allows experienced teams to deliver more, without compromising on quality or safety, and ensures that the most skilled people are focused on the work that genuinely requires their capabilities.
Watching closely. Moving deliberately.
KAEFER does not own a fleet of robots. The decision not to purchase equipment outright is deliberate. The number of projects where conditions genuinely support robotic deployment is not yet consistent enough to justify ownership at scale. Instead, KAEFER works closely with supply chain partners like Vertidrive to access the right technology for the right project, testing, refining, and building capability as the market develops.
KAEFER’s approach is that of a smart follower: closely monitoring how robotic technology evolves across the industry, identifying where it is genuinely ready, and coordinating from the Group level to support our local entities in deploying it effectively when the conditions are right. This means our teams in the field are not left to navigate new technology alone. The knowledge, the partnerships, and the trial framework are built and maintained centrally, so that every business unit can benefit from what has already been learned.
When the conditions are right, the results can be remarkable. The question is always whether those conditions exist on a given project. That is the judgment KAEFER brings to every conversation about robotics, and it is what makes the difference between a technology trial and a genuine step forward.
Note: Written by humans – with a little help from GenAI. This article combines human understanding and intelligent digital tools to bring KAEFER stories to life.