Robotic welding is becoming more accessible for smaller shops. With a shortage of skilled welders, even small shops are looking to automation to stay competitive. As SwitchWeld points out, “with the current skilled labor shortage, the constant demand for quality fabrication is skyrocketing”. A welding cobot (collaborative robot) can help by taking on repetitive welds. In simple terms, a welding cobot is a collaborative robot designed specifically for welding. Unlike big industrial robots, cobots are safer to be around thanks to sensors and safety features, so they can work side-by-side with human welders. This all leads to the following question: “Is a welding cobot right for my shop?” Using the information in this article, you can decide for yourself.
Price Range and Cost Factors
Welding cobot prices vary widely. A basic entry-level cobot arm (No welding table or supplies) might cost on the order of $30,000 to $50,000. However, that is just the robot itself. A complete welding cell (robot plus all the tools) runs much higher. For example, a full cobot welding system typically runs from $70,000 to $150,000 depending on features and installation. In practice, the robot arm is only about one-third of the total. In other words, you should roughly triple the cobot price to estimate the total cost for the entire system. For instance, a $30,000 robot arm might turn into about $90,000 for the full setup (including controller, welding power supply, torch, wire feeder, table, fixtures, software, and installation labor).
Key factors that affect cost include:
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- Robot model and payload. Higher-capacity arms (larger reach or heavier lifting) cost more.
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- Welding equipment. Some packages include a power source, torch, and feeder; others assume you use existing gear. Some welding equipment are more expensive than others, which can affect the cost of the cobot. (i.e. Miller vs. Fronius)
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- Jigs and fixtures. Tools to hold the workpiece add cost.
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- Programming & training. If welders need support to set up the cobot, that adds consulting fees for some companies. However, SwitchWeld offers free training to all of its customers.
Calculating ROI and Payback
Buying a cobot is an investment, so you’ll want to know the ROI (return on investment). In plain terms, ROI answers the question: How long before this machine “pays for itself”? For welding cobots, the savings usually come from two big sources: labor and productivity.
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- Higher Rate of Production. Integrating a welding robot often doubles or triples a welder’s output. This means one welder can produce more products than they could alone. This means more products in less time, saving the need to hire more welders.
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- Ease-of-Use. Cobots are easy to use and are built for beginners. This means that you can place newer welders at the cobot, leaving more experienced welders to focus on more specialized parts. The ability for a cobot to produce senior quality welds by a novice welder saves on the need to hire more experienced welders. And for companies like SwitchWeld where training is free, you can completely avoid training costs for the cobot.
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- Other factors. Better consistency means less scrap and rework. Improved weld quality and less material waste are harder to quantify, but they boost ROI too. And training time matters: simple systems that welders can program in minutes (for example, via a handheld “teach puck” or joystick) reduce engineering costs.
ROI Calculation: Here’s a down-to-earth way to figure out if a cobot makes financial sense for your shop:
Let’s say your welding cobot system costs $80,000 total. Now imagine it assists one of your welders by handling the repetitive welds—things like long straight beads or repeat parts—while the welder focuses on setups, quality checks, and trickier work. If that cobot helps the welder double their output, you’re getting the work of two shifts done in one.
If the added productivity saves or generates around $40,000 worth of extra work per year, your cobot pays for itself in just 2 years. If you run a second shift or weekend jobs with the cobot, your payback can drop closer to 1 year.
Example: From 24 Parts to 120 Parts a Day
Say your team is welding a part that takes 20 minutes by hand. That’s 24 parts per 8-hour shift (480 minutes ÷ 20).
Now imagine your welder works with a cobot and gets that weld time down to 4 minutes per part. That’s 120 parts per shift.
That’s 5× more parts — not because you hired 5 more people, but because you gave your welder the right tool.
Now say a customer needs 500 parts:
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- Without a cobot: ~21 shifts to complete
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- With a cobot-assisted setup: ~5 shifts to complete
That frees your welder to take on more jobs or spend more time on high-skill work — while the cobot keeps cranking out consistent welds.
TIP: Always add up all costs (robot, torch, fixture, wiring, safety, etc.) and all savings (labor, overtime, scrap, rework) when doing the math. First contact the cobot company to get the complete price, then divide by annual savings to get payback.
A Real Shop’s Experience
Actual customers report big gains. For instance, a production engineer at a machine-building shop said about the SwitchWeld welding cobot:
“Before the SwitchWeld unit, we were welding one of these parts every 20 minutes. Now, we are doing 6 parts in 20 minutes with high quality and amazing consistency.”
That’s a 6× throughput increase – turning one part per cycle into six. In this case, labor per part dropped dramatically (roughly a sixth of the time per piece). Another SwitchWeld customer (a plant manager at a metal fab shop) noted that the cobot “did 3 people’s jobs… Minimal training is needed and very easy to use. All our welders are very happy”. These examples illustrate how the numbers work in practice: big output jumps translate into big ROI.
(Of course, results vary by application. But customers like these show what’s possible in a small-to-medium shop.)
Is a Cobot Worth It My Shop?
Ultimately, a cobot is worth it if the long-term gains exceed the cost. Many shops look for a payback of 3–5 years on such an investment. If your shop can find that with a cobot (by saving one welder’s worth of labor or running extra shifts), it can make good business sense.
Small shops especially benefit if:
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- They have repetitive weld tasks (batches of similar parts).
- They pay high wages or overtime for welders.
- They need to weld beyond normal hours or can share one welder across machines.
- They want to improve quality/consistency to reduce scrap.
- They want to keep their production local (to keep from having to outsource tasks)
For those shops, a cobot priced on the lower end (e.g. SwitchWeld’s entry-level systems) can easily pay off. SwitchWeld promotes “affordable automation and rapid ROI” specifically to meet smaller shops’ needs. So if you are a small shop that has decided a cobot is worth it for your shop, SwitchWeld is a great place to start. You can easily sign up for a free demo here, or find more information about the pricing here. Unlike most other cobot companies, SwitchWeld’s prices are publicly-available, so you can quickly calculate your ROI without the hassle of talking with a sales representative. Leave any questions in the comments below, and schedule a free demo today if you are ready to begin the transition to welding cobots.