Industrial robots have been in use for about 50 years. The first industrial robot was used for material handling in a General Motors facilities. Nowadays, many different applications can be done by robots. But which ones are the most popular? Here are the top 5 applications for industrial robots:

1 – Robotic handling operations (38%)

Material handling is the most popular application with 38% of operational stock of industrial robots worldwide. This includes robotic machine tending, palatalizing and various operations for metal machining and plastic moulding. With the introduction of collaborative robots in the last few years, this part of the market is always increasing.

2 – Robotic Welding (29%)

This segment mostly includes spot welding and arc welding which is mainly used by the automotive industry. Spot welding is still more popular than robotic arc welding but not for long; as arc welding is becoming very popular in the metal industry. More small work shop are beginning to introduce welding robot into their production. In fact, with the price of robot going down and the various tool now available on the market, it is now easier to automate a welding process. 

3 – Robotic Assembly (10%)

Assembly operations include: fixing, press-fitting, inserting, disassembling, etc. This category of robotic applications seems to have decreased over the last few years, even while other robotic applications have increased. The reason why the applications are diversified is because of the introduction of different technologies such as force torque sensors and tactile sensors that gives more sensations to the robot.

4 – Robotic Dispensing (4%)

Here we are talking about painting, gluing, applying adhesive sealing, spraying, etc.  Only 4% of the opreational robots are doing dispensing. The smoothnest of robot makes a repetable and accurate process. 

5 – Robotic Processing (2%)

Processing is not a big segment of industrial robots (only 2%) and this is probably because a lot of automated machines are available on the market to do specifically these applications. The main application areas are mechanical, laser and water jet cutting. As you can see in the picture, sawing tasks can now be done with robots...whats next?

Note : The data are from 2010 World Robotics, a survey made by the IFR Statistical Department. It considers the worldwide operational stock of industrial robots at the end of 2009.