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"The Rest of the Robot" |
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RISTEC's Competitors
The current
landscape of robotic end effector manufacturers is a very confusing and
ambiguous one. Few if any companies make and sell only their own end effector
products. Most are private labeling their supposed competitor’s products. The
key here is that no single company has a complete line of end effector products
that they manufacture and sell entirely themselves. It is for this reason that
no one in the end effector industry has developed a synergistic line of products
like RISTEC’s. This puts us at an advantage giving us the ability to create
products that are designed to work together.
Another
prominent feature of this landscape is that none of them supply through stocking
distributors. In addition, they never will without radically decreasing profits
by paying commissions that they currently don’t. This puts RISTEC at a decided
advantage in that we are allying ourselves mostly with robot distributors. The
robot market, like the end effector market is dominated by “factory direct “
sales and marketing. A few robot companies are realizing that the robotic market
is changing rapidly toward less expensive, simple to operate flexible automation
solutions. We espouse this philosophy and believe that value added distribution
is the best channel to our market.
http://www.robohand.com/
Robohand has the
widest variety of robotics products for a single company. Their compliance and
safety devices are private labeled from a German company called IPR, which
distributes their products in Germany. Robohand is owned by the same company
(Dover corp.) that owns EOA and a French gripper company called CCMOP. The IPR
products in the Robohand product line are not seen in the industry as typical
for the quality Robohand has in tool changers and grippers. Robohand has factory
regional managers and uses a nationwide network of non-stocking representatives.
Robohand is the only competitor that has anything even resembling stocking
distribution. Robohand claims “off the shelf delivery” from the factory.
Robohand pays commissions of between 10-15% Competitive tool changers: RHC-1, RHC-2
ATI is one of the few companies that manufacturers everything they sell. Their tool changers have traditionally been considered the best on the market (prior to RISTEC’s appearance on the market, of course). Their compliance devices had problems in years past but they’ve solved them. Another shakeup with the Robohand/ CCMOP merger was that CCMOP used to private label ATI tool changers in Europe and had to drop them as a result of the merger with Robohand and EOA. This lead ATI & Schunk to private label their products in Europe and here in the US.
ATI uses factory regional sales managers and distributes from the
factory. They sell direct and pay no commission to distributors or reps. Competitive tool changers: QC5, QC10, QC11, QC20, QC21
Applied robotics has had perennial financial difficulties over the past few years. It has been rumored that PHD would private label them but nothing has transpired so far. PHD used to have EOA tool changers in their catalog. When Robohand and EOA merged, PHD dropped EOA leaving them without tool changers. It is possible that due to Applied’s cash crunch that they cannot afford to have PHD private labeling their products since PHD distributors earn up to 35% commission. Applied private labels PHD’s grippers with little success. Applied’s tool changers, which were a very expensive and very weak product, were known in the industry as failing by decoupling under load. They have designed a new line to replace the old products. The jury is still out on this one.
Applied uses factory sales managers. They sell direct and pay no commission to distributors or reps. Competitive tool changers: XC1, CXC10
IPR
is a German company that supplies Robohand with safety and compliance devices.
They have developed their own tool changers based upon the Robohand design and
have also developed their own grippers. They are currently represented as IPR by
MRM in Detroit. This would indicate a possible rift with Robohand. They are also
becoming focused more in the robotic spot welding market.
As stated before EOA is part of the Robohand group now. Robohand lists their items in its pricing information but not in their catalog. Their tool changers are arguably the worst on the market. They are well know for the tool changers separating under moment loading causing leakage of pressurized air thru the interface.
They sell direct and pay no commission to distributors or reps. Competitive tool changers: 30-A, 60-A
Techno is a German company. They have a very wide array of products but have never gained a foothold here in the US as their main German competitor, Shunk has. They are considered very high priced for the quality and have a very weak sales, marketing and support network. Their US operation consists of a very small, poorly trained staff who spend most of their time relaying orders back to Germany. Delivery is very poor, as they stock practically nothing here in the states.
They do have reps throughout most of the country that receive 20-25%
commission adding to an already over priced product. Competitive tool changers: WW50F, WW80F, WW100F
Robotic Accessories has made their way in the world mostly as a reseller. Their tool changers are made by ATI and their grippers are mostly made by Zaytran. They do manufacture some of their own products, which are perhaps the worst of their kind on the market. Having failed in this market, they are entering the transgun welding tool changer market.
They sell direct and pay no commission to
distributors or reps. Competitive tool changers: same as ATI
PFA makes all of their products and they are, at least with the compliance devices and some of the grippers, truly modular. They don’t seem to have a big following in the automation industry but keep on going somehow. They sell direct
and pay no commission to distributors or reps.
Schunk
is a German company known mostly for their high quality grippers. They used to
make and sell their own compliance and tool change devices, which were not up to
snuff with the rest of their products. They got into bed with ATI for tool
changers and compliance devices when CCMOP merged with Robohand and EOA. CCMOP
was forced to carry Robohand and EOA tool changers, which left the ATI
distribution in Europe up for grabs. Schunk added these items and now has a very
high quality line of robotic end efector products…. at a price. Competitive tool changers: same as ATI | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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