FlowMarket
Where to find industrial robots and integrators: FlowMarket is a B2B sourcing network powered by an AI agent. You describe the task — payload, reach, cycle time, the environment and how many shifts it runs — and the agent matches you with robot suppliers and system integrators who build that kind of cell, then requests quotes and lead times so you can compare capability and price in one place.
Sourcing robotic automation
The single most useful thing to understand before enquiring is that you are almost never buying a robot. You are buying a cell, and the robot is typically twenty to thirty percent of it. The rest is gripping, guarding, feeding, fixturing, controls, integration with your existing line and the commissioning time to make it all repeatable. A quote for a robot and a quote for a working cell differ by a factor of three or four, and comparing one against the other is where automation budgets go wrong.
That is also why the enquiry should describe the job rather than the machine. What is being moved or worked on, how heavy, how far, how fast, in what condition it arrives and where it has to end up. Integrators who recognise the application answer with a concept; those who do not answer with a price list, which is a useful filter in itself.
The three numbers that decide the robot
- Payload — the mass at the wrist, and that means part plus gripper plus any cable and sensor. Grippers routinely weigh as much as the part, and undersizing here is the most common specification error.
- Reach — the working envelope, measured from the robot's base to the furthest point it must touch. Add the space taken by the gripper and by the pose the arm must adopt to get there.
- Repeatability — how closely it returns to a taught position, typically ±0.02 to ±0.1 mm. Note that this is repeatability, not accuracy: a robot returns reliably to where it was taught, which is a different guarantee from hitting a coordinate.
Cycle time is the fourth number and the one most often taken from a datasheet. Catalogue speeds assume unloaded moves and no acceleration limits; a real cycle with a full gripper, careful approach and a settling time is slower. Ask for a simulated cycle time on your actual sequence before signing.
Who you buy from changes what you get
- Robot manufacturer — sells the arm and the controller. Right when you have integration capability in-house or are extending an existing installation.
- System integrator — designs and builds the whole cell and hands over a working process. The usual route, and the supplier whose competence actually determines the outcome.
- Standard cell supplier — a pre-engineered palletising, welding or machine-tending cell configured to your part. Cheaper and faster than bespoke when your application fits the template.
- Used and refurbished — a viable route for well-supported brands, particularly for a second identical cell. Ask about controller generation, remaining spares availability and who warranties it.
Brand ecosystem is a long-term decision
Robots are not interchangeable in practice even where they are on paper. Programming language, teach pendant, safety configuration, service network and spare parts all follow the brand, and a plant with three brands needs three sets of trained people. If you already run one make, staying with it has real value that rarely appears in a comparison spreadsheet.
The exception is when the incumbent brand has no local service presence. Response time on a stopped cell matters more than a familiar pendant, so ask each supplier where their nearest service engineer sits and what the guaranteed response is.
Safety is part of the scope, not an extra
A robot cell is machinery under the Machinery Directive, which means a risk assessment, a safety concept to ISO 10218 and ISO 12100, guarding or safety-rated monitoring, and a CE declaration for the completed installation. If you are integrating a robot into an existing line, you may become the manufacturer of the modified machine and inherit that obligation.
Clarify in the enquiry who carries the CE conformity and the technical file for the finished cell. It is a genuine cost and a genuine liability, and a quote that quietly leaves it with you is not the cheaper quote.
How the AI agent matches suppliers
The agent reads your requirement rather than your keywords. It searches the FlowMarket network and connected industrial directories together, scores every candidate on how well it answers what you described — application, payload, industry, integration scope, geography — and drops anything that does not clear the bar. Each match comes back with a plain-language reason, which tells you whether an integrator has built this kind of cell before or would be building their first on your line.