When I first started in the industrial robot supply space back in 2008, I’d sit in trade show aisles talking to plant managers who’d say things like, “Robots? That’s for car factories, right?” Back then, they weren’t wrong—most industrial robots did live in automotive plants, welding frames for trucks or painting car bodies to a finish no human could match. But today, if you walk into a random manufacturing plant across the Midwest, Southeast, or even parts of Canada, you’ll find robots doing everything from packing cereal boxes into shipping crates to sorting delicate electronics on a production line. Over the 15+ years I’ve been at this, I’ve watched adoption spread across industries that barely used robots a decade ago, and if you’re looking to invest in your first robot or expand your existing fleet, knowing which sectors are leading the charge isn’t just interesting—it’s critical for making the right choice. Let’s break down the industries that use industrial robots the most, why they’re leaning so hard into automation, and what that means for your business. Industrial Robot
First up, automotive manufacturing. And yes, it still leads the pack—just not in the way you might remember. In 2023, our team at the industrial robot supply firm I work with sold over 3,200 units to automotive clients, more than any other sector, and that number’s been climbing 7-9% year-over-year since 2020. This isn’t just old-school welding, either. Modern automotive plants use robots for everything from precision welding (think 1mm gaps on a SUV frame, something a human can’t repeat 1,000 times an hour) to interior assembly: installing dashboards, door panels, and even infotainment systems with a level of speed that cuts down production time per vehicle by 20-25%. Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing has supercharged this, too. EVs have far fewer moving parts than gas-powered cars, so assembly lines are simpler, but those parts are bigger, heavier, and need more consistent handling. I visited an EV plant in Detroit last year where they use 120 robot arms just to lift and position battery packs—something that would require 4 workers per line and carry a huge risk of injury if done by hand. What I love about automotive clients is that they’re early adopters of new robot tech; they’ll test our newest collaborative robots (cobots) alongside traditional heavy industrial units because their production lines run 24/7, and downtime costs them $100,000+ an hour. That pressure to minimize downtime makes them perfect partners for us, and their demand for reliable, fast robots keeps our product team innovating nonstop.
Next on the list is electronics manufacturing, and this is where things get really exciting right now. Ten years ago, electronics firms were barely using industrial robots—most component sizes were too small, and people thought robots couldn’t handle the tiny, fragile parts like microchips or smartphone camera lenses. But that’s all changed. In 2022, electronics overtook another sector I’ll talk about next to become the second-largest buyer of industrial robots, and now they make up roughly 18% of our annual sales, with clients ranging from big-name smartphone brands to small contract manufacturers that assemble circuit boards for medical devices. The key here is precision. A single microchip has 100+ tiny pins that need to be soldered or placed exactly where designed—off by even 0.01mm and the chip is useless. Humans can’t maintain that level of precision 100% of the time, especially when working 12-hour shifts. Robots, though, use vision systems and precise motion controls to place those parts with consistent accuracy every single cycle. I also talked to a client in San Jose last month that uses our small, compact cobots to sort and test smartphone displays. The cobots handle the screens gently, no scratching, and run 18 hours a day without needing a break, which has cut their defect rate by 12% and increased their output by 35%. What’s cool about electronics is that the industry is always evolving—new phones, new chips, new medical devices—so our robots have to be flexible. We’ve had to build robots that can be reprogrammed in 10 minutes instead of the old 2 hours, which is a game-changer for these clients who switch product lines every few months.
The third biggest industry for industrial robots is food and beverage processing, and this one’s been booming since the pandemic. I know, I know—you might think of a bakery or a soda plant as a place for people, not robots, but that’s no longer true. Post-2020, food and beverage firms have been scrambling to meet increased demand for packaged goods, plus stricter food safety rules that limit human contact with products. For context, food and beverage now accounts for around 14% of our sales, and that number is projected to grow 11% annually through 2028. The applications here are varied: packing cereal into boxes, sorting produce (like apples or potatoes) by size and ripeness, labeling beer bottles, even baking bread in large commercial ovens. One of my favorite clients is a cookie manufacturer in Ohio that used to have 25 workers manually packing chocolate chip cookies into holiday tins. Last year, they installed 8 of our delta robots—those fast, lightweight robots with three arms that can move in a wide circle— and now that line runs with just 2 workers supervising, no more lost cookies, and a 40% increase in output during peak holiday season. Food safety is a huge driver, too. The FDA has stricter guidelines now about contamination from human hands, so robots that are easy to sanitize, made from food-grade materials, and don’t touch the product directly (or only in controlled ways) are in high demand. I also work with a frozen pizza maker that uses our robots to place pepperoni slices on pizzas; each pizza gets exactly 42 slices, so no one gets shorted, and the robots don’t leave fingerprints on the dough. That’s a win-win for quality and safety.
Fourth, and often overlooked, is metal products manufacturing. This includes everything from stamping steel for construction beams to making kitchen appliances like refrigerators and ovens. For years, metal work was seen as “dirty, dangerous, and too heavy” for robots, but advances in robot lifting capacity and safety features have changed that. Metal products now make up about 12% of our sales, and our clients here range from small metal fabrication shops to large appliance brands. The big pain points for these clients are consistent quality, reducing workplace injuries, and cutting down on waste from over-stamping or mis-cutting metal. I visited a metal stamping shop in Indiana last quarter that was struggling with 15% employee turnover because the job of loading heavy steel sheets into stamping presses was causing chronic back injuries. They bought 5 of our heavy-duty industrial robots with custom end-effectors that grip the steel sheets firmly, no slipping, and now turnover is down to 2%—that’s a huge win for them, because training new workers for that role used to cost $2,000 per person, plus downtime while they learned. Another client makes commercial laundry machines; they use our robots to weld the steel frames, which means every frame is identical, so the machines fit together perfectly at the final assembly line. Before the robots, they’d have to rework 8% of frames because of human welding errors, now that number’s less than 1%. That kind of quality improvement is why metal product clients keep coming back to us for more robots.
If you’re wondering what’s next, there are two industries that are growing fast, even if they aren’t in the top four yet, and they’re worth keeping an eye on. First is pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing. We’ve seen a 22% year-over-year increase in sales to this sector since 2021, driven by the need for precision in drug packaging, medical device assembly, and vaccine production. After the pandemic, pharma companies realized that automated lines mean faster production and less risk of supply chain delays, so they’re investing heavily in flexible robots that can switch between packaging pills one day and assembling insulin pens the next. The second is e-commerce and logistics. Wait, you might not think of logistics as “industrial robots,” but the robots that sort packages in warehouses, stack pallets, and load trucks are exactly what we supply. Logistics is now using more robots than ever to handle the massive volume of online orders—one client I work with in Dallas has 50 robots sorting 10,000 packages an hour, which would take 200 human workers to do manually.
Now, let’s talk about why all these industries are adopting robots at such a fast pace, because it’s not just about “keeping up with technology.” First, there’s the labor shortage. Across the U.S. and Europe, manufacturing is struggling to fill 800,000 open roles, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. Industries like automotive, food and beverage, and metal products have the hardest time finding workers for repetitive, physically demanding jobs, so robots are a way to fill those gaps without sacrificing production. Second, quality control. Consumers today expect perfect products—no dents on a car door, no missing parts in a smartphone, no lopsided cookies. Robots can maintain consistent accuracy that humans can’t, even over long shifts. Third, cost savings. While the upfront cost of a robot can be $20,000 to $100,000, depending on the model, most clients see a return on investment (ROI) in 1 to 3 years, often less. For example, the cookie manufacturer I mentioned earlier calculated that their ROI was 18 months, thanks to less waste and fewer workers needed. Finally, safety. Manufacturing has some of the highest rates of workplace injuries from heavy lifting, repetitive motion, or working with dangerous tools like welding torches or stamping presses. Robots take on the most dangerous tasks, so workers can move to supervisory roles that are safer and often higher-paying.
But here’s what I’ve learned after 15 years in this business: you don’t need to be a big automotive or electronics plant to benefit from industrial robots. Last year, we sold a small cobot to a local bakery in my hometown that makes artisanal bread—they use it to place bread loaves onto baking trays, and now they can take on 30% more orders without hiring extra staff. A contract manufacturer in rural Ohio that makes medical tubing bought 2 small robots to sort and package the tubing, cutting their defect rate by 10% and letting them take on a new client that required higher precision. The key is matching the right robot to your specific task, not just buying the biggest, fastest one you can find. That’s why our team spends time with every client, walking their floor, talking to their workers, understanding their pain points, before we even recommend a robot. We don’t just sell equipment—we sell solutions that fit their business, whether they have 10 workers or 1,000.
If you’re a plant manager, operations director, or small business owner looking to automate part of your production, the most important thing is to start small. You don’t have to rework your entire line tomorrow. Pick one task that’s repetitive, has high error rates, or is hard to fill with workers, and test a robot on that. Most robots are easy to program now, even for people without advanced tech skills—our customer support team can help you set it up in a day or two. I’ve seen clients go from 1 robot to 10 over 5 years, as they see the ROI and understand how robots fit into their workflow.
At the end of the day, the industries that use industrial robots the most are the ones that need them the most. They’re dealing with labor gaps, demand for better quality, pressure to lower costs, and safety concerns, and robots have become the solution that lets them grow without burning out their teams or sacrificing their products. Whether you’re in automotive, electronics, food and beverage, metal products, or any other sector, there’s a robot that can help you.
If you’re ready to explore how industrial robots can work for your business, feel free to reach out to discuss your specific needs. We can schedule a time to talk through your production goals, assess your current workflow, and recommend the right robots to help you meet them.
4 Axis Robot References
International Federation of Robotics. (2023). World Robotics Report: Industrial Robots.
National Association of Manufacturers. (2024). U.S. Manufacturing Labor Shortage Update.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2022). Automation in the Food and Beverage Industry: Trends and Benefits.
Borunte Robot Co., Ltd.
Borunte Robot Co., Ltd. is one of the leading industrial robot manufacturers and suppliers in China. We warmly welcome you to wholesale or buy discount industrial robot for sale here from our factory. All customized products used in different applications are with high quality and low price.
Address: NO.93, Shafu Road, Shabu Village, Dalang Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China
E-mail: borunterobotcoltd@gmail.com
WebSite: https://www.borunte.net/
