Growth in welding, US sales drive Teradyne’s robotics group in Q1

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A UR10e cobot performs MIG welding at a Polish production plant. | Credit: Universal Robots

Teradyne‘s industrial automation group grew its revenue 29% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2022 to $103 million. The group consists of AutoGuide Mobile Robots, Energid, Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) and Universal Robots (UR). The companies generated $80 million in Q1 2021 revenue.

As usual, UR led the way with record Q1 revenue of $85 million. That is up 30% when compared to revenue in Q1 2021. UR sales in the United States grew 55% in the quarter.

“We’re seeing broad-based growth from many different segments,” Greg Smith, president of Teradyne’s industrial automation group, told The Robot Report. “Customers have told us they’ve been facing labor shortages since the beginning of pandemic. Now that they’ve realized those shortages aren’t going to get better, they’re investing in automation.”

UR sales for global welding applications grew more than 100% in Q1 2022 when compared to Q1 2021. Teradyne also highlighted UR’s growth in welding applications during the Q4 2021 earnings call. At that time, welding applications accounted for more than 6% of UR sales. Teradyne said that was more than 3x above 2020 levels.

“Reporting record Q1 revenue at a time when businesses across the world are facing disruption from the pandemic, supply chain challenges and conflict is a testament to the role collaborative automation can play in helping our customers stay competitive,” said Kim Nørgaard Andreasen, UR’s chief financial officer. “In addition to record revenue, we have been pleased this quarter to welcome 80 new employees to our rapidly growing company.

“When we consider the trends in both societies and businesses, everything points to a growing demand for automation. We are making plans to meet this demand, including starting work this month on new bigger headquarters in Denmark to help accommodate the company’s growth.”

Sales of MiR’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) grew 22% in Q1 2022 to $17 million. The growth was on the back of MiR’s newer MiR600 and MiR1350 heavy-payload AMRs and larger fleets being deployed at customer sites. MiR generated a total of $64 million in revenue in 2021.

Teradyne said it experienced minor slowdowns in China due to recent COVID-19 lockdowns and the European Union due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

“We delivered first quarter results ahead of the midpoint of our January outlook as we successfully resolved some short-term supply constraints at Universal Robots,” said Teradyne president and CEO Mark Jagiela. He continued, “In industrial automation, both cobot demand at Universal Robots and autonomous mobile robot demand at MiR remain strong and we expect the revenue growth rate to accelerate through the year.”

Teradyne’s industrial automation group generated $376 million in revenue in 2021. That marked a 34% increase from the $280 million generated in 2020.

Smith is giving a keynote presentation at the Robotics Summit & Expo. The international event is focused on the technical issues involved with the design, development, manufacture, and delivery of commercial robots. The Robotics Summit & Expo takes place May 10-11 in Boston at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Smith’s keynote, titled “Collaborative Robotics – Resolving the Manufacturing Labor Crisis, Creating New Opportunities,” will discuss the market drivers of human scale automation and present a model of the market potential for collaborative robots to automate dull, dirty and dangerous tasks. Smith will also share his vision for robotics, where people work with robots not like robots. The keynote will take place on May 11 from 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM.

The Robotics Summit & Expo will feature 100-plus exhibitors, 50-plus speakers, the MassRobotics Engineering Career Fair, a Design for Additive Manufacturing Workshop, and networking receptions. Attendees also have the chance to test drive Boston Dynamics’ Spot quadruped. Full conference passes are $795, while expo-only passes are just $100. Academic discounts are available and academic full conference rates are $295. Register today.