Cobot Welder Price: All The Costs You Must Consider

Depending on the system, a cobot welder price is generally between $50,000 and $150,000. With the right system, you should have a fast ROI and a significant boost in productivity.

When choosing the right system, you must consider multiple costs. Your cobot welder solution should minimize expenses while providing as much value as possible for your application.

Fixed Vs. Variable Cobot Welding Costs

Every cobot welder incurs fixed and variable costs. You’ll have to pay both, but the right system can help you eliminate some expenses. For example, an easier-to-program cobot will have lower operational costs than another one requiring more advanced programming knowledge and time.

Fixed Costs

Fixed expenses are mostly one-time payments for the equipment. Always evaluate if the cobot welder you are considering includes everything you need from hardware. Otherwise, the true cost may be higher.

• Cobot arm. Robot size and brand mainly affects the price (e.g., UR20 is more costly than UR10e).
• Work table.
• Welding power source.
• Welding torch/gun.
• Wire feeder (if welding with filler metal).
• Jigs and fixtures.
• Cobot tooling (to hold the welding gun/torch).
• Software (if it’s a one-time payment or free).
• Safety equipment like safety enclosures or flash curtains.
• Additional accessories like fume capture, water cooling, monitoring systems, etc.

Variable Costs

Fiber laser welding needs a shielding gas and can work with or without a filler metal wire. A handheld fiber laser welding setup has:

• Maintenance.
• Lost productive labor time while training the staff and implementing the system.
• Training costs.
• Ongoing programming costs. If the system is more complex, you may require the help of an integrator or allocate your employees time to learn and work on the system.

Why The Cobot Welding Process Matters

Your welding process selection can have a higher effect on your costs/profits than the cobot system. Challenge your manual welding processes before automating. Some welding methods are faster, easier to apply, and easier to automate than others. Switching to another process when automating can sometimes deliver the same or better output and quality than if you automated your manual process.

Pairing the most suitable welding process for your application with a cobot is the way to go. It’s a win-win because you benefit from the process and automation. For example, Quality Tooling and Repair (QTR) improved their welding speed by 9 times after switching from manual TIG to automated laser welding.

MIG vs. TIG vs. Laser Welding

Laser welding beats MIG and TIG across the board for most sheet metal and thin gauge applications. So, automating laser over MIG/TIG can help you improve profits, product quality, and ROI.

Thanks to the laser’s highly focused heat input, it drastically increases the welding speed and reduces heat input. So, you get more done with a higher weld quality. Fiber laser welding is 4X faster than TIG while providing the same or better weld appearance and penetration, with less post-processing work.

If your application can be laser welded, you might put yourself at a disadvantage if you opt to automate MIG/TIG over laser welding. While automating any welding process will improve productivity and profits, you would leave a lot on the table by choosing a less productive process. (Read more in our direct laser vs. TIG welding comparison).

The Laser Welding Cobot System is the best fit to easily automate the laser welding process. The operator moves and records the arm position at the start and end of the weld and adjusts the weld parameters in the no-code teach pendant.

Intangible Cobot Welding Benefits

Using the Laser Welding Cobot System doesn’t just directly improve profits and cut costs, but also gives you a wide array of intangible advantages. The cumulative effect of these indirect benefits is dramatic, improving almost every aspect of the welding process.

• Improved employee satisfaction and retention.
• Reduced needed operator skills.
• Improved customer relations and product satisfaction.
• Better position in the market to take on more work, especially work unsuitable for manual welding.
• Better workplace safety.
• Easier weld inspection and quality assurance.
• The scalability of cobots and faster expansion. With manual welding, it’s more difficult to grow as you strictly depend on the available workforce.
• Better flexibility.
• Less downtime.
• Much easier to standardize production, even in multiple locations.
• You can scale the application of knowledge/experience of your most valuable welders/fabricators.

Calculating The Laser Cobot Welding ROI

The Laser Welding Cobot System is priced between $125,000 and $150,000, offering a more cost-effective solution while providing all the benefits of laser welding. Let’s now see how to calculate the cobot laser welding ROI.

According to the AWS welding workforce data, the US national median welder salary is $53,500. However, you’ll typically need to pay about 30% more than that for additional employee compensations, according to the US Department of Labor. Depending on your workflow, you could pay much more if your welders often work overtime. Your goal should be for your welders to use a laser welding cobot to drastically increase their output, netting a higher revenue per paid labor hour.

First, consider the fixed (equipment) costs and variable costs. The Laser Welding Cobot System can be quickly deployed and doesn’t require any specialized training, significantly reducing your variable costs on downtime until the cobot starts working.

You probably already know the approximate profits your welders make per hour. To calculate a cobot welder’s ROI, you’d need to approximately account for the boost in welding output. A cobot welder can 2-4X your productivity, but in some cases, you can even 10X it. For example, the Quality Tooling and Repair (QTR) cut their welding time from 90 minutes to 10 minutes per piece after implementing the Laser Welding Cobot System.

A good cobot system will also help you reduce rework and scrap, further contributing to a faster ROI. Automated laser welding reduces excessive distortion, burn-through, undercutting, lack of fusion, and other defects while improving consistency and reliability.

Besides the direct cost savings, you should also factor in the intangible benefits. Their effect can be profound, even if difficult to put into numbers. Just consider the effect a laser welding cobot will have on getting more customers, the reliability of the production, and the retention of your welding talent.

Ready To Implement a Welding Cobot?

Schedule a demo with our team to discuss your projects and parts. We’ll help you evaluate if a laser wedding cobot is the most productive solution for your industry and applications. Don’t ignore automated laser welding. It can be the most transformative technology you have ever introduced to your workflow.

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