Aries/MRS selected by leading disk drive manufacturer to provide automation capable of doubling the output of their media test workcells

June 19, 2008 -- Aries/MRS today announced that it has been selected by a leading disk drive manufacturer to provide automation upgrades for their media test workcells that will increase productivity by up to 200%.

"This order represents a collaborative effort between the drive manufacturer, Aries/MRS and Adept Technology, a leading provider of intelligent robotics," said Wayne Erickson, executive vice president of Aries/MRS. "By working closely with our customer to understand their requirement we were able to evolve a design that both utilizes their existing capital and also achieves the needed production performance. The final solution meets and exceeds expectations, delivering exceptionally high throughput that will result in substantially lower overall manufacturing costs.We are honored to have won this contract; it is a tremendous endorsement of our capabilities."

Smaller disks take less time to process and test. As the production volume of smaller disks increases, automation speed also needs to increase in order to optimize tester utilization. The Aries/MRS automation solution protects much of the customer's initial investment in equipment while enhancing the design for far greater throughput. Maximum performance was achieved by employing an innovative approach to automation that matches material handling speeds with that of the test equipment. This results in significantly more factory output capacity without requiring additional test equipment or facilities.

About Aries/MRS

Aries/MRS, Inc. is a private corporation formed by the merger of Aries Innovations and Magnetic Recording Systems, Inc. Aries/MRS is focused on developing and manufacturing best-of-breed automation and testing systems that significantly increase manufacturing productivity for the disk drive, fiber optics and solar industries.

Aries Innovations was a pioneer in work cell automation for the disk drive industry with over 250 legacy systems installed world-wide. Their automated, high speed Class 10 disk handling systems support both linear and carousel assisted work cell (CATC) configurations.

Magnetic Recording Systems was founded in 1997 to design and manufacture equipment to test critical components used in the disk drive industry. MRS was recognized as the technology leader in production media testers for high volume manufacturing. The company also made production test equipment and modules for the semiconductor wafer inspection and photonics industries.

About Adept Technology, Inc.

Adept is a global, leading provider of intelligent robotics systems and services that enable customers to achieve precision, speed, quality and productivity in their assembly, handling, packaging, testing and other automated processes. With a comprehensive portfolio of high performance motion controllers, application development software, vision-guidance technology and high-reliability robot mechanisms, Adept provides specialized, cost-effective robotics systems and services to high-growth markets including Packaged Goods, Life Sciences, Disk Drive/Electronics and Semiconductor/Solar; as well as to traditional industrial markets including machine tool automation and automotive components. More information is available at www.adept.com.