n NEWS July/August 2023 www.drivesncontrols.com 8 THE GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE industry, formerly the world’s biggest buyer of industrial robots, is catching up with the electrical and electronics sector which overtook it to take the lead in 2021. The latest figures released by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reveal that the automotive sector installed 137,932 robots around the world last year, putting it just behind the electrical/electronics industry on 139,745 machines. Car-makers added 16,722 new robots in 2022 (a 14% increase), compared to just 1,813 (about 1% more) installed by electronics firms. “The big two are more-or-less head-tohead,” says IFR president Marina Bill, commenting on the preliminary 2022 statistics. Final figures will be released in September. The IFR numbers show that after a 27% surge in global robot installations during 2021, take-up slowed to just 2% last year, taking the number of new installations to around 531,000. But the Federation predicts that growth could return to 12% this year. The number of robots sold worldwide has tripled over the past decade, despite Covid. China remains by far the world’s largest market for industrial robots with 267,726 new machines being installed there last year (more than half of the global total), followed by Japan on 51,558, the US on 39,940, Korea on 30,336 and Germany on 26,344. The metal and machinery sector remains the world’s third-largest user of robots, with 64,446 machines installed last year (down from 66,086 in 2021), followed by plastics and chemical products on 25,437 (24,707 in 2021) and food on 13,237 (14,822 in 2021). Drilling down into the figures reveals considerable differences by region, country and sector. For example, Germany is still the biggest user of robots in Europe but with only about one tenth of the number of installations in China. Italy saw a 10% surge in robot installations during 2022 (compared to 3% in Germany). While the German market is dominated by the automotive sector with 7,127 new installations (down from 9,167 in 2021), in Italy it is the metals and machinery sector that leads the way with 3,670 installations, with the automotive sector in fourth place, behind plastics/chemicals and food. Bill says that there is considerable uncertainty over the future of the robot market in Europe but, with backlogs of orders in Germany and a tight labour market in many countries, the fundamentals for future growth are“very positive”. Automotive sector regains ground on electronics as the biggest robot buyer PLANS FOR A £98m “factory of future” innovation centre for Belfast have been approved by the local council. The 10,500m2 Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre (Amic) will become Northern Ireland’s national centre for advanced manufacturing, accelerating innovation and collaboration between industry and researchers. It is due to open in 2026 at Global Point, Newtownabbey. As part of the project, Innovate UK is investing £1m to support Northern Irish businesses, starting this year. The funding will help them to build capabilities in automated food manufacturing, digital twins, and embedded digital verification technology. A series of digital manufacturing testbeds will be available to businesses to explore digital manufacturing technologies, use cases and how they can be applied to address business challenges. The aim of Amic – being delivered by Queen’s University in partnership with Ulster University and Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council – is to reinvigorate local industry and to address the future technology and skills challenges faced by the region’s manufacturing sector. A report last year found that Northern Ireland manufacturing has a strong local competitive position, but a weak global one. Apart from a few large-scale and niche players, the economy is dominated by small companies with limited innovation capabilities that, without help, will struggle to take on new technologies and risk falling prey to more agile international competitors. The UK Government and Northern Ireland Executive are providing £170m of funding for Amic and two other centres – the Global Innovation Institute and the Institute of Research Excellence for Advanced Clinical Healthcare – while a further £30m will be invested by Queens University and its partners. “Northern Ireland has a vibrant and highly sophisticated advanced manufacturing sector,” says Steve Baker, Minister of State for Northern Ireland. “Amic will provide further support as a springboard for manufacturing, giving local companies access to the latest manufacturing technologies.” Amic will build on 50 years of innovation at the Northern Ireland Technology Centre, the Polymers Processing Research Centre and the more recent NI Advanced Composites and Engineering universityindustry partnership. Northern Ireland’s £98m ‘factory of future’ will accelerate innovation Northern Ireland’s planned Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre is intended to act as a springboard for manufacturing innovation in the region
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