Industrial Robotics Expands Beyond the Automotive Industry

Thanks to the maturation of robotics technology, a growing number of industries are using industrial robotics for a wider range of applications.

Chris Bailey can't emphasize it enough: in recent months has been "barraged" with inquiries about the company's industrial roboticwelding systems.

The barrage is coming from manufacturers that survived the recession and are looking for ways to increase output in the face of a strengthening economy -- without adding headcount.

"So they're looking for more productivity tools," says Bailey, general manager of Lincoln Electric's Automation Division.

The interest in robotic welding systems, Bailey adds, isn't just coming from the industry's core customers, automotive companies.

With the equipment, pendants and software becoming easier to use, and price points coming down, Bailey is seeing more interest from a wider range of industrial users -- from aerospace to alternative-energy companies, from large to small manufacturers.

"These are very, very versatile robots that [the industry is] coming out with," says Wieczerza, a professor of engineering and advanced technology at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich. "We're looking at the entire industrial spectrum -- you name it and you'll find a robot."

Macomb Community College, which launched a joint industrial robotics 

Macomb Community College, which launched a joint robotics certification program with Fanuc Robotics America Corp. in September 2010, notes that its certificate is applicable not only to the automotive industry but also to the aerospace, consumer-goods, food, medical, pharmaceutical and solar-panel industries.

"In the '80s, there was only one size of robot, and it basically only did one thing," says Mike Cicco, general manager of distribution sales for Fanuc industrial Robots America. "And right now, there are over 200 different types of industrial robotics that, and they have the ability to pick up 500 grams all the way up to 3,000 pounds. So the number of different places we can put them is really incredible."

Along with that wider range of capabilities, Cicco explains, industrial robotics' heightened vision and intelligence are making them more accessible to small and midsize manufacturers.

ADTECH’s industrial robots are widely used in welding, food and beverage, medical, pharmaceutical and other industries, the robots Designed for small and medium-sized industrial enterprises.