CAN WE RISE UP THE ROBOT CHARTS? The UK’s poor showing in the global league of robot-users is often cited as evidence (or the reason) that we are no longer at the forefront of manufacturing, and as a partial explanation for our poor productivity. The latest statistics from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) – in its 2023 World Robotics report – put esh on the bones. The gures – which come from robot suppliers – con rm that the UK had just 98 industrial robots for every 10,000 workers employed in manufacturing in 2022, placing it 25th in the global ranking of robot penetration, and way behind the leaders such as South Korea (on 1,012), Singapore (730) and was also well below the global average of 151 robots per 10,000 employees. What’s more, these gures are buoyed up by the UK automotive sector which had 755 robots per 10,000 employees (less than half as many as German carmakers). If you exclude automotive installations, the gure for the rest of the UK manufacturing sector was just 56 robots per 10,000 workers. So, are there any signs that the UK is catching up with its rivals? Well, in 2022 the number of new industrial robots installed in the UK rose by just 3% (to 2,534) compared to the previous year. Way back in 2012, the UK installed almost 3,000 robots in a single year, probably driven by large automotive contracts. In recent years, the number of robots installed has almost atlined, with a CAGR of 1% between 2017 and 2022. The number of robots installed by car-makers in the UK fell by 3% in 2022 to 472 (representing 19% of all the industrial robots installed that year). Although still by far the largest user of robots, this sector is declining in size. In 2017, it accounted for more than half (54%) of the industrial robots in use in the UK; by 2022, the gure was 46%, with a total of more than 12,200 machines in use. The second-largest user of robots in the UK is the plastics and chemicals sector, with almost 3,000 working robots in 2022. The metals industry was using 2,191 robots (10% more than in 2021), while the food and beverage sector had 2,060 (a 24% rise on 2021). In fact, food and beverage is one of the fastest-growing adopters of industrial robots in the UK, adding 348 new machines in 2022 – a 76% increase on the previous year – making it the second-largest purchaser of new robots. By contrast, demand for new robots from the metals sector fell by 15% to 270, while plastics and chemicals orders plummeted by 32% to just 213 machines. The most popular use for new robots in the UK is for handling and machine-tending, which accounted for 1,191 installations in 2022 (47% of the UK total), putting it ahead of welding (221 new robots) and assembly (142). By 2022, the UK had a total stock of 26,515 operational industrial robots – 7% more than in 2021 – making it the world’s 15th-largest robot user. More than half of these (53%) were being used for handling and 22% for welding. In terms of technologies, articulated robots accounted for 1,780 of the new industrial robots installed in the UK in 2022, followed by linear/Cartesian/gantry on 389, parallel/delta on 119, Scara on 170 and others (such as cylindrical) on 76. The number of parallel/delta robots installed in 2022 was 95% higher than in 2021, while the number of Scara installations fell by 24%. So, there we have a snapshot of the UK market for industrial robots in 2022. There are few signs that the UK is installing enough robots to improve its position in the global rankings. In 2022, it was the world’s 20th-largest buyer of robots and the uptake was particularly low outside the automotive sector. There are signs that some sectors, such as food and beverage, are beginning to buy more robots, but they are starting from a low base. It certainly doesn’t look like British industry is buying enough industrial robots to make inroads into its poor productivity gures. A case could be made for more government support for this sector, but with public spending being under such intense pressure, this doesn’t seem like a priority at present. It seems that the UK will continue to languish in the lower regions of the global robotics charts for some time to come. Tony Sacks, Editor n COMMENT - t Switches & best oE Etherne Ethe Hardware Solutions: energy with our lity goals make co e Demo: w Interactiv new SFP & Gigabit E aunch: oTmodules -in-class IoT ast, ernet to Serial, F y monitoring system t ost-savings and mee thernet Switch range s: B145 Visit U
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