Robots refurbished

Industrial robots have been around for a long time. Sectors such as the car industry have been blazing a trail for decades with their high-profile adoption of automated plants and production lines. It follows then that the more established a market becomes, the more likely it is to create new markets to accommodate machinery that has seen better days and is in need of renewal.

One such example is the vast and influential small and medium sized business market where many companies have long considered themselves priced out and unable to consider the sort of automation enjoyed by their larger counterparts.

Aided by a growing impetus to remain competitive and help alleviate shortages in skilled labour, interest has been rising in recent years, according to the International Federation of Robotics. Used robots, they point out, typically come with proven technologies and are tested and optimised for a variety of applications, reducing the risk of compatibility issues and simplifying integration into existing production lines. Another advantage is availability: those already in the workflow can often be delivered much faster than newer ones.

Assembly lines across various industries currently employ over 37.6 per cent of used and refurbished robots, according to a study by the Indian-headquartered research group, Astute Analytica. This is not surprising. Used and refurbished machines are especially appealing to assembly line endusers due to their exceptional precision, speed, and repeatability – all factors seen as essential for achieving production goals in such applications.

These robots are often meticulously maintained and come with cutting-edge technology, meaning they’re well able to execute complex tasks. And because they are typically designed for specific functions and have demonstrated effectiveness in analogous applications, integrating them into existing production lines is usually straightforward.

And importantly, they also present a more sustainable alternative to buying new ones to join existing and established assembly line applications. In terms of the global picture, Asia Pacific has emerged as a major hub with the region expected to witness an increase in market share from 62 per cent in 2022 to 66.4 per cent by 2031, growth that can be attributed to the highly cost-sensitive market in a region dominated by the likes of India, China, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

The estimated lifetime of a new robot is usually around 20-25 years, depending on the preventive maintenance of the machine in question. Aside from the importance of those checks, reputable vendors will usually ensure rigorous reconditioning guidelines are followed in line with manufacturer’s maintenance schedules and use only original parts.

Florida second-hand equipment specialists Robots Done Right summed it up: “Looking into refurbished robots is appealing for many reasons, but one main benefit is how much money you can save. A used robot could cost up to 50 per cent less than a new one. The reduction of cost can help small businesses lean into automation without breaking their budget.”

And they add: “Jumping into automation can free up time and employees to work on other things that can then translate into faster business growth. If you are using a refurbished robot that is similar to the one you are already using, then it will be easy to use. There won’t be a long learning curve because you will be able to jump in with confidence.”

The range available is extensive, but the most in-demand applications tend to involve welding palletising and milling, along with assembly-related tasks. Many vendors report a growing client list of SMEs, some of which are small enough to be described as small shops. At the other end of the scale, as part of their sustainability focus, the Renault car assembly plant in Flins, France, set new goals in terms of extracting value from existing products, quickly rebranding itself as the Refactory, a place which now retrofits robots retired from its factories in Sandouville, Maubeuge and Douai as well as Valladolid, Spain.

The company’s aim is to retrofit more than 170 per year to support its shift to producing electric vehicles in an operation that will save it E3 million a year. In Switzerland, the Industrial robotics vendor ABB has introduced a buy-back scheme which involves refurbishing inactive or legacy robots to avoid scrapping them or, in their words, “leaving them the corner of a factory”.

It now has remanufacture centres in Germany, the Czech Republic, the US, Brazil, Vietnam and China which also take in peripheral equipment such as controllers and manipulators to sell on. Jan Borsky, the division’s sales manager, gave an indication of the size of the issue: “We have one of the largest inventories of preowned and reconditioned robots across the world, with 400 robots of various types in stock for sale, and currently the demand for second life robots is so high that we have more than one robot leaving our Ostrava facility every working day.”

The company says buying refurbished robots can cut 75 per cent of the CO2 emitted during production, compared to buying new. For example, disposing of an ABB IRB 6640 as scrap would waste 1.4 tons of material, mainly metal, which takes a lot of energy and thus Emissions to recover and reprocess.

The concept is nothing new, in terms of vision, if not at the practical level it is today. As long ago as 2015, a multiauthoured academic paper on robotics in the SME market. The International Journal of Robotics Research and Application warned: “To operate a sustainable manufacturing system, a continuous design effort is required to reconfigure existing resources and enhance their capabilities to fulfill new tasks in the dynamic environment.”

And it’s not just factory robots that are getting a makeover. Sony has launched a “foster parent” programme for its older generation of Aibo automated dogs which will involve refurbishing, donating them to foster homes and into medical centres.