Wholesale Industrial Robot Suppliers

Industrial robots are classified by their mechanical architecture: 6-axis articulated robots (the most common configuration) — rotary joints at shoulder, elbow, and wrist provide a full 6 degrees of freedom enabling complex spatial motion paths; payload ranges from 3 kg (small-part handling) to 2,000 kg (heavy-duty foundry and press tending); reach ranges from 600mm to 4,200mm; used for welding (arc, spot, laser), assembly, painting, palletising, machine tending, and material handling; SCARA robots (Selective Compliant Assembly Robot Arm) — 4-axis design for fast planar (pick-and-place) operations; cycle times of 0.3–0.5 seconds for short-reach tasks; used for electronics assembly, screwdriving, label application, and packaging; delta robots (parallel-arm "spider" robots) — 3 or 4 parallel arms attached to upper mounting platform; extremely fast (up to 150 picks/minute); used for high-speed pick-and-place in food, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods; collaborative robots (cobots) — designed to operate alongside humans without safety fencing under ISO/TS 15066; force/torque sensing enables immediate stop on contact; payload typically 3–20 kg; used for final assembly, inspection, machine tending, and flexible automation cells; and Cartesian gantry robots — 3-linear-axis systems with very high load capacity and long reach; used for CNC machine tending, press loading, and large workpiece transfer. Key specifications for robot selection: payload (kg), reach (mm, maximum working radius), accuracy (ISO 9283 pose repeatability, typically ±0.02–0.1mm), IP rating (IP65/67 for wash-down, clean-room versions for electronics/pharma), axis speed (°/s per axis), and robot controller (KUKA KRC5, Fanuc R-30iB, ABB IRC5, Yaskawa YRC1000).

Industrial robot safety is governed by ISO 10218 (Safety requirements for industrial robots) — Parts 1 (Robot design and construction) and 2 (Robot system integration) — and ISO/TS 15066 (Collaborative robots). ISO 10218-1 covers the robot itself (manufacturer's responsibility): design requirements for emergency stop, axis limiting, speed monitoring, power and force limiting for cobots, and software-based speed and separation monitoring (SSM). ISO 10218-2 covers the robot cell integrator's responsibility: risk assessment for the complete robot cell, safeguarding design (barriers, light curtains, pressure-sensitive mats, area scanners), safety-rated PLC integration, and safety-rated software (EN ISO 13849 PLd or PLe depending on risk level). ISO/TS 15066 provides additional guidance specifically for collaborative robot applications — defining the allowed contact forces and pressures for human-robot contact (quasi-static contact and transient contact pressure limits) that must not be exceeded for safe cobot deployment. For EU deployment, robots require CE marking under the Machinery Directive with a risk assessment covering the complete robot cell (not just the robot itself). The robot manufacturer typically provides a partly completed machine (Declaration of Incorporation) — the system integrator must complete the safety assessment and issue the final Declaration of Conformity for the complete cell. ABB, KUKA, Fanuc, and Yaskawa all provide safety-rated functional software (SafeMove2, KUKA.SafeOperation, Fanuc DCS, YRC1000 FSU) that implements the ISO 10218 safety functions in certified robot controllers.