Manufacturing Using Robots Can Really Cost

Online, January 4, 2013 (Newswire.com) - In October this year, "The New York Times described the scene: 128 robotic arm to yoga flexibility to work in the Netherlands, Philips factory. Operating the video camera to guide them far more than most dexterous artificial. Their three shifts a day, 365 days a year non-stop work, do not need to rest.

This will be the scene of the future manufacturing plant. A new generation of robot robot than the currently widely used by the car manufacturers and other heavy industry manufacturers skilful much. They are all over the world to replace the workers in the manufacturing and distribution industries.

Even Apple iPhone manufacturer Foxconn also plans to continue to build the new plant, while employment to thousands of new workers to produce smartphones, install the robot in addition to more than 100 million of its workforce in China in the next few years.

However, in the face of the robot high purchase cost, whether the robot is cheaper?

Many U.S. robot manufacturers, in many applications, the cost of the robot's lower than the manual. Factory automation systems consulting firm: an industrial robot, for example, the initial cost of the manufacturing system is $ 250,000, to replace the two-machine operation workers, each of them an annual salary of $ 50,000 in 15 years of manufacturing system life cycle inside, the robot can replace the manual and increase productivity savings of $ 3.5 million in overhead.

With the gradual rise of labor costs in China, in large and small enterprises force the same set off a wave of robot manufacturing boom. In 2013, this trend will be exacerbated.

Shorten the technological gap since the robots are gradually replaced labor, then the robot manufacturing natural to step up the pace. The robot manufacturing enterprises advantage of services and prices, technologies, product lines, the size of the gap is the main disadvantage of the Chinese enterprises. Currently, most of the critical infrastructure components of the application on the Chinese market of industrial robots for the import of product design, materials and technology, system integration and abroad there is a big gap, there is no formation of the corresponding standardized, modular interchangeability of hardware and software and the function module. Ongoing technological innovation is the key.

Train key personnel for foreign first-mover, the leading edge, the research and development of the robotics industry in China lags far behind the United States, China and Japan, especially in young people is far from being carried out robot assembly, production of scientific activities, which will be related to the 2332 Ten years after China's industrial development. Integrated joint research funding for robot manufacturing industry, is the current task.