The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) had some encouraging industry growth news to tout at the start of its Automate show in Detroit earlier this week: After a record year in North America for industrial robot orders in 2021, that momentum has carried into the first quarter of 2022.
A3’s figures show that North American companies started the year by purchasing the most robots ever in a single quarter, with 11,595 robots sold at a value of $646 million. That’s up by 28% by units and 43% in dollars over the first quarter of 2021, and 7% and 25% respectively over the previous best quarter, Q4 of 2021. Back in February, A3 reported that industrial robot sales in North America had a record year in 2021, up 28% over 2020 and 14% higher than the previous top year in 2017.
