Industrial Robots and Cobots: Automation for SMEs

Robot automation was long considered the domain of heavy industry – expensive, complex, and only profitable with massive production volumes. This view is outdated. Falling prices, simpler programming, and collaborative robots have opened automation to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Classical industrial robots are designed for speed and precision in secured cells. They excel at repetitive tasks in high volume, such as welding, painting, or palletizing. The investment pays off wherever the same movement must be repeated thousands of times with exact precision.

Cobots – collaborative robots – take a different approach. They are engineered to work directly alongside people without protective fencing. Thanks to force and torque sensors, they stop upon contact. This makes them ideal for flexible workplaces where humans and machines share tasks.

For SMEs, the simple setup of modern cobots is particularly attractive: many can be taught through manual guidance rather than traditional programming. This allows a device to pay for itself even with small batch sizes, for example in machine loading, packaging, or quality control.

Those seeking to get started don't necessarily need to buy new. Used robotic arms from production changeovers offer excellent value for money – provided maintenance status and software support are sound. A certified device from the right marketplace significantly lowers the barrier to entry.