The Igus Purple Robot Marketplace Offers Low-Cost Automation

For years, when you visited the igus booth at an industry trade show, you would see the familiar orange branding, even down to the clothing of booth personnel. Over the last year, we’ve seen a new splash of color: purple – a noticeable contrast to the orange. Purple is the branding color of RBTX, the igus marketplace for all things robotic.

I remember seeing the first igus robot at IMTS in 2018. The robot was priced around $6,000, a surprisingly low price at the time. I was a little surprised that a component company was selling a product that could potentially compete with its customers. The igus North American marketing manager explained that the low-end of the robot market didn’t have any competitors. That one low-cost robot led to a new division at igus.

Here comes the purple brand

Igus has branded RBTX as a gateway to low-cost automation solutions on the go. RBTX is a marketplace for low-cost robotics that brings together users and suppliers of low-cost robotic components. The business unit was created to help users explore cost-effective automation and robotics technology. The site is filled with delta robots, gantries, and cobots. RBTX also teams with end effectors, components, and operating systems needed to deploy automation.

Related:Igus Places a Strategic Bet on Low-Cost Robotics

The site features consultation gratis, with the intention of helping users cobble together automation machinery that can introduce manufacturing efficiency at a quick pace.

This video offers some background on RBTX: 

We caught up with Jan Hennecke, RBTX’s product manager, to get details on the history, products, and services of RBTX.

Describe the content and purpose of RBTX.

Jan Hennecke: Igus has been playing in automation forever, especially with small automation components: chains, no-grease bearings, and injection molded parts. Over time we started building more components, supplying robotic parts, gears, linear axes, and prebuilt robotic systems. We’ve been building components that are cost effective, so we branded them as low-cost automation. In robotics, we’ve been building igus arms for delta robots, linear systems and more. For more than 15 years we have been selling automation systems at a low cost.

What does RBTX offer beyond robots?

Hennecke: There’s more to automation than robots. There’s programming, add-ons, safety, and service. Our low-cost automation is attractive to people who are new to automation. We constantly recommend products from other suppliers that include integrators or conveyor companies. The collection of automation components became the basis of RBTX.

Related:The Democratization of Automation

The idea for RBTX began in 2017, and we opened the marketplace in 2018. We also offer free consulting services as part of RBTX.

What’s at the forefront of new components and services at RBTX?

Hennecke: We continue to add new components. We offer simple motor drivers. We have pack-and-place PLCs. Our igus robot controls have evolved into the iRC (igus robot controller). We use a digital twin and that makes it easy to program the automation. Most of our interns do not need training to learn. We have an automation library. You can custom-develop the apps or we can develop them for you. The advanced version has safety in it. You can communicate with any kind of software you want. We also have normal drives you can put into the PLC.

Our distribution across industries includes education, automation, agriculture, electronics, medical, aerospace, furniture, and construction. We continually get requests from education. Schools struggle because it’s expensive to bring robots into the classroom. With low-cost equipment, we can fill that need.

What territory do you cover?

Hennecke: igus is a Germain company, so we have a lot of initiatives in Germany. The German market is advanced in automation. I work with North American requests. We offer know-how to support customers in completing their projects. The Midwest US is strong in automation as is the West Coast and the Northeast.

Within igus we’re kind of like a start-up within a company. We focus on speed. Manufacturers are choosing us because we have flexible configurators and instant price-quoting online. At a test lab, your design takes two weeks, but the test takes two months. That’s where we come in handy. You can instantly get a price. Companies want to just buy and install the automation. You can get it up and working within a couple days or a week. We’re trying to be the easiest company to work with.