Robot Sales Up, Led By Auto Industry

Orders for Robots are up more than 5-percent in the U-S for the 3rd quarter.
The Robotic Industries Association says the growth in robots comes from the auto industry, with nearly half of the growth in robot purchases from the auto companies.Companies have ordered nearly 24-thousand robot units this year, valued at 1 and a half billion dollars. The robot association says orders are growing from non-automotive customers, like food and consumer goods. But it’s autos that continue to lead the way in robotics. Automated assembly accounts for half of the robotics in North America.“We continue to see improvement in the robotics market,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of A3 and RIA. “At this time last year we saw a dip in orders of around 15 percent, so it’s encouraging to see a recovery through the third quarter. We hope to end the year strong and see growth in 2020 as well.”
Burnstein said he sees strong interest in robotics from companies that have never invested in robots before. Prospective users from a wide variety of industries were among the 300+ attendees at the recent Collaborative Robots, Advanced Vision and AI Conference the association sponsored in San Jose, Calif.