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This week’s Thomas Index Report is sponsored by Ohio Valley Manufacturing, an ISO-certified, TS-compliant custom manufacturer specializing in all stages of robotic welding services, from design to production.

Welcome to the Thomas Index Report for the week of February 3rd.

This week, we’re taking a closer look at sourcing trends for robotic welding services.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, global spending on industrial robots is expected to exceed $24 billion by 2025. This reflects the sharp growth trajectory of robotics over recent years. In fact, worldwide sales of industrial robots increased 296% between 2004 and 2018, jumping from 97,000 units sold in 2004 to 384,000 units sold 14 years later.

Robotic welding technology is leading the pack as one example of the growing incorporation of robotics across the industry and around the world. Valued at $5.4 billion in 2018, the global robotic welding market is expected to reach $10.7 billion by 2026.

Reflecting this trend, the Thomasnet.com platform, search activity for this category is up 179% year-over-year and 271% over last quarter.

This growing interest in robotic welding services is fueled by three main factors. First, the rapid adoption of Industry 4.0, especially in the automotive sector, is driving strong interest in robotic welding options.

Second, manufacturers are realizing the accuracy, time-efficiency, and safety associated with robotic welding services. By removing humans from working dangerous welding tasks and reassigning them to more intellectually demanding projects, industrial businesses can speed fulfillment, increase uptime, and remove worker safety risk from their operations.

And finally, as adoption of this technology grows, the cost of robotic welding services is decreasing. In a recent report, ABB predicted a reduction in price for spot-welding robots used in automotive applications. While these welding robots cost $182,000 in 2005, their price dropped to $155,000 in 2010 and is expected to go down as far as $103,000 by 2025. While still a high upfront cost, robotic welding technology is slowly becoming a more realistic investment for manufacturers.

We expect to see interest in this category continue to grow in the coming months as adoption spreads to new sectors across industry.

I’m Tony Uphoff and this is the Thomas Index Report.

Image Credit: Thomas Index Report

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