Collaborative robots: a buyer's guide
Payload, reach, guarding, programming and where a cobot genuinely beats a fixed cell in electronics manufacturing.
A collaborative robot is an industrial arm designed to work beside people without a safety cage, using force limiting and integrated vision instead of guarding. In electronics manufacturing they handle tending, inspection and material movement — the repetitive tasks between processes rather than the processes themselves.
Size it honestly
Payload is the part plus the gripper plus any cable or hose carried at full reach. The gripper is what first-time buyers forget.
Reach must cover the whole working envelope including the awkward corner, not the typical pick point.
Guarding is an application decision
A force-limited arm is not automatically a cage-free installation. The requirement is set by a risk assessment of the whole application — an inherently safe arm carrying a sharp tool or a heavy part can still need guarding.
Where a cobot beats a fixed cell
When one arm must serve several stations, or reach parts a fixed gantry cannot.
When the task changes often enough that re-teaching beats re-tooling.
When floor space rules out a caged cell.
For single-fixture repetitive work, a purpose-built cell is usually faster, cheaper and more repeatable.
Commonly asked
How hard are they to program?
TechMan arms are taught by hand-guiding and a flow-based interface rather than by writing robot code, so a manufacturing engineer can build a working task without a robotics background. Training is included either way.
Do collaborative robots need safety fencing?
Not usually, which is most of their appeal — but the requirement comes from a risk assessment of the application, not from the arm's rating alone.
Get the answer for your actual part
A guide can only take you so far. Send us the board, the fluid or the fastener and we will run it, film it, and come back with cycle times and a quote.
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