The Covid-19 pandemic is continuing to generate elevated income of robots, with the industry reporting that the very first quarter of 2021 was its 2nd-most significant quarter ever for non-automotive revenue.
Robot orders in the first quarter have been up 20% over the same time period in 2020, with substantial raises in buys coming from corporations in metals (up 86%), lifestyle sciences/pharmaceutical/biomed (up 72%), foodstuff & consumer products (up 32%), and other non-automotive industries (12%), in accordance to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3).
The potent Q1 for robot orders was the 2nd-greatest begin to any yr on report, stretching back again to 2017, and it followed on the heels of a hot Q4 2020, which was also the next-very best quarter at any time for North America robot product sales with a 64% enhance above Q4 2019.
The business is also growing to a extra diverse range of users, with 2020 marking the initially yr that once-a-year orders of robots from non-automotive sectors surpassed automotive robot orders, as sales of robotic models in North America greater 4% in 2020 from 2019.
“Robot income have elevated substantially as additional and a lot more organizations in every sector identify that robotics and automation can assist them contend globally,” Jeff Burnstein, president of A3, claimed in a launch. “While innovations in robot technological innovation, simplicity of use, and new purposes keep on being key drivers in robot adoption, worker shortages in producing, warehousing, and other industries are a sizeable aspect in the present growth of robot use that we’re now viewing. Covid didn’t build the transfer towards automation, but absolutely has accelerated traits that now were underway.”