Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1467744
42 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2022 so it is a no brainer. As soon as they looked at it, they said, "We'll just take it." It won't necessar- ily eliminate jobs, but rather that person oper- ating the line will be working more efficiently. Sometimes there's a fear that people will lose their job to a robot, but if somebody's running one machine, that same person can probably have an easier day running two machines with the help of a robot. Johnson: Is that how customers realize increased capacity, throughput, and top line sales? Siemering: Yes. e installation Neil referenced in the UK was initially on a chemical clean line. ey doubled the throughput of the line, with just the same person running it. For them, the purchase was an easy decision to make. Johnson: In the spirit of doing return on invest- ment calculations, what's the asking price right now for the Automata robot? Reitz: For the robot itself, it's $21,000, without any heads. A fully functional robot right out of the box is around $25,000 to $26,000. Johnson: One half of a full-time employee over six months is going to deliver that return, isn't it? Siemering: Yes, plus the increase in throughput. Robinson: Regarding ROI, keep in mind that while it does replace a half of an employee, that's also over multiple shis. e robot can work three shis a day, which improves ROI significantly. Johnson: Not to mention the programming complexity that goes along with the other sort of robots you're mentioning is extremely high—they're usually optimized for doing a few highly intricate jobs such as welding or mate- rial management at a larger scale than PCBs. Siemering: We feel this robot is a really good fit for the PCB facility. Initially, we're saying that the chem clean line is the simplest thing to set it