The Market for Small-Payload Industrial Robots Grows
小负载工业机器人市场增长

The world market for industrial robots was worth an estimated $8.2 billion in 2011 according to IMS Research. Around 68 percent of revenues were for articulated, and two-thirds of this were for robots designed for use in applications requiring a payload of above 15kg.

根据IMS Research的估计，2011年全球工业机器人的市场规模为82亿美元。其中，关节式机器人的销售约占68%，而三分之二的销售来自在15公斤以上负载应用中使用的机器人。
 
To-date, industrial robots have typically been used for heavy-duty applications such as welding, palletising and assembly. However, in recent years there have been significant advances in machine vision, sensing and gripping, which has enabled robots to start being used in new industrial applications and unfamiliar sectors. The food, beverage and personal care and consumer electronics industries are forecast to be the two fastest growing sectors for industrial robots from 2011 to 2016, growing at an average annual rate 8.6 percent and 8.0 percent respectively. Lower payload applications are generally more common in these industries.

目前，工业机器人通常被用于重型应用，如焊接、码垛和装配。然而，最近几年在机器视觉、传感和抓取的应用有显著进步，这使得机器人开始被用于新的工业应用和之前没涉及的行业。食品饮料和个人护理，以及消费电子行业预计将成为2011年至2016年工业机器人增长最快的两个行业，年均增长分别可达8.6％和8.0％。在这些行业中，较低的负载应用一般比较常见。

Kiran Patel, analyst at IMS Research explains, “The consumer electronics industry is characterised by many labour-intensive assembly processes. Traditionally, work has been carried out by hand in regions of low labour cost, such as China. In recent years, wages have been rising per year in term of U.S. dollars (around 14 percent according to Chinese government statistics); also young people are more likely to enter further education than pursue industrial apprenticeships. Consequently, labour has become more scarce and expensive. Patel continues “The interest in industrial robots has increased in labour-intensive industries as companies look to automate and cut costs. Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has announced that it plans to deploy one million industrial robots in its plants in 2-3 years. Whether or not this does come into fruition is another question but this certainly points towards the growing application of industrial robots in the industry.”

IMS Research分析师Kiran Patel说，“消费电子行业的特点是许多劳动密集型的装配过程。传统上，在劳动力成本较低的地区，比如中国，一般是手工操作。近年来，折合美元的话，工资每年在不断上升（根据中国政府的统计，大约为14％）；而年轻人更愿意继续深造而不是追求成为工业学徒。因此，劳动力越来越稀缺和昂贵。” Patel继续道：“随着企业寻求自动化改造和降低成本，劳动密集型产业对工业机器人的兴趣有所增加。台湾电子产品制造商富士康宣布，计划在2-3年内在其工厂部署一百万台工业机器人。无论这最终能不能实现是另外一回事，但这清楚地表明，工业机器人在行业的应用在不断增长。”

In the food and beverage industry, greater purchase of robots has more to do with the fact that it is an industry that fluctuates less with changes in general economic activity. With economic uncertainty continuing in the Eurozone, manufacturers of industrial robots do not want all their revenues to come from automotive industry (which is one of the most sensitive to the rise and fall of the general economy). Manufacturers of robots have reacted by offering robots with a high protection class, making them applicable to food and beverage production.
 
在食品饮料行业，机器人采购量增加，更多的原因是因为这是受一般经济活动的变化波动较小的一个行业。随着欧元区经济前景的持续不明朗，工业机器人制造商没有将其所有的收入寄望于汽车行业（这是对整体经济的上升和下降最敏感的行业之一），他们的应对措施是，提供具有高防护等级、适用于食品和饮料生产的机器人。

IMS Research predicts that from 2011 to 2016, revenues from articulated robots with a payload of below 15kg will grow on average by 6 percent a year. Investment in automating production of food & beverages and of consumer electronics will be the main contributors to this growth.

IMS Research预测，2011至2016年，15公斤以下负载的关节式机器人销售将以年均6％的速度增长。食品饮料和消费类电子领域对自动化生产的投资将成为这一增长的主要贡献力量。