ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION
“ Segments that are relatively new to automation are rapidly adopting robots . The pandemic and the resulting disruptions to supply chains and labour availability appear to have been the push that many needed to justify robotic investments .”
AUTOMATE TO ACCUMULATE
Several market trends are propelling the growth outlook for industrial robotics . The case for robots “ has never been stronger ”.
Milton Guerry , President of the International Federation of Robotics .
The World Robotics 2021 Industrial Robots report shows a record of three million industrial robots operating in factories around the world , an increase of 10 %. Sales of new robots grew slightly at 0.5 % despite the global pandemic , with 384,000 units shipped globally in 2020 . This trend was dominated by positive market developments in China . This was the third most successful year in history for the robotics industry , following 2018 and 2017 .
“ The economies in North America , Asia and Europe did not experience their COVID-19 low point at the same time ,” said Milton Guerry , President of the International Federation of Robotics . “ Order intake and production in the Chinese manufacturing industry began surging in the second quarter of 2020 . The North American economy started to recover in the second half of 2020 , and Europe followed suit a little later .”
Several market trends are propelling the growth outlook , he explained .
“ The localisation and regionalisation of supply chains will make them more resilient by bringing production closer to the customer . New business models , such as Robots-as-aservice ( RaaS ) or Pay-asyou-use , lower entry barriers . The growing supply of low-cost robots will further reduce the total cost of ownership ( TCO ), opening [ up ] robot usage in new markets . Lastly , ‘ batch size 1 ’ production allows customised product variations at the unit costs of serial production . These trends will be a driver for advanced robotics systems and provide a platform for fully digitalised production from order to delivery . The case for robots has never been stronger ,” he confirmed .
A global overview
Sustainability in manufacturing is no longer a “ nice-to have ”. This initiative will increasingly impact investment decisions where robotics make a multitude of impacts .
“ Firstly , robots are crucial for the costefficient production of green technology , for example solar panels and batteries for electric vehicles . Second , robotic production
18 | sheetmetalplus . com | ISMR May 2022