The quotation shows you an arm. What it does not show you is the rigging, the gripper, the plant air, the handshake with your machine and the stroke model you will regret. Five items, and every one of them lands as a line item later.

Mr. Chen, Technical Director at ROBOT (Ningbo) Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.|Published 2026-11-10|Updated 2026-11-10|Checked against our published SPRE specifications

Most take out robot quotations are honest documents, and that is exactly why they are dangerous. They show the arm, the model class, the axes, the payload and the payment terms, and they are careful to say that everything else is quoted separately. Nothing on it is false. It is just incomplete in a way that becomes expensive after the order is signed and the arm is on the floor with nothing to connect it to.

I have sat on both sides of this. As a technical director I read the specification of every quotation that reaches my desk; as a purchasing manager you need a number you can defend in a meeting. What follows is the teardown of that quote against the specifications we publish for the SPRE take-out robot series, so the five missing costs can be priced before the order rather than after it.

Hidden cost 1: installation, rigging and commissioning

What the quotation shows: a robot, a model class and a delivery date. What it hides: that this thing weighs 228 kg to 320 kg net depending on model and axis count, and arrives as a floor-mounted column with a long transverse beam. What it costs: the crane, the rigging crew, the floor space, the alignment, the commissioning days. How to price it: ask for the installation scope as a written list before comparing quotations.

Our published net weights run 228 kg for the 3-axis 700 I, 248 kg for the 3-axis 900 I and 298 kg for the 3-axis 1100 I, with the 5-axis versions 20 to 22 kg heavier again. Those numbers tell you which crane you need and whether the cell fits the door. Because a 320 kg arm arriving next to a machine that cannot be lifted over is a cell design problem rather than an installation problem, it is discovered late unless somebody asks for the weight early.

Hidden cost 2: the gripper and the rest of the end-of-arm tooling

What the quotation shows: a payload figure. What it hides: that the figure already includes the tooling. What it costs: a second tooling line, a custom mould job and a possible retrofit. How to price it: read the payload definition before the price, and quote the tooling separately from the arm.

Because the published maximum load of 6 kg includes the gripper on every model in the series, a 6 kg rating is not 6 kg of part. On a light-part line the gripper is often the heaviest single item the robot carries, so the practical working load is whatever the gripper takes from the rating. Two consequences buyers rarely price: the tooling is engineered for the part and the mould, so it is a custom item, and a gripper heavier than the application needs can push the arm past its duty point on a part that weighs nothing.

Hidden cost 3: plant air and electrical works

What the quotation shows: a power supply specification. What it hides: that the specification is a demand on your plant, not a description of the robot. What it costs: a compressor upgrade, a distribution board change, and the installation labour that goes with both. How to price it: get the consumption figures and check them against the machines already on that header.

Our published specification is a working air pressure of 5 to 7 kgf/cm2, air consumption of 1.0 NL per cycle on the 3-axis and 1.5 NL on the 5-axis, and a power supply of AC 220 V plus or minus 10 percent, 12 A, 50/60 Hz, single phase. Modest for one robot, not modest for a plant running ten machines off one compressor, because a cell cycling every few seconds pulls air continuously, and a marginal compressor is where a take-out robot ends up waiting.

Hidden cost 4: the machine handshake and cell integration

What the quotation shows: the robot’s own controls. What it hides: that the robot has to talk to an injection moulding machine that already has a control system, its own safety circuit and its own sequence. What it costs: interface engineering, guarding, and the cell downtime that comes with commissioning. How to price it: name the interface standard in the enquiry and let each supplier quote the same scope.

The machine-to-robot interface is defined in the EUROMAP family, where EUROMAP 79 covers the interface between the injection moulding machine and the robot, and the electrical safety side of the cell sits under machinery electrical practice such as IEC 60204-1:2016. In Europe the wider frame is the Machinery Directive, recorded in the EUR-Lex text of Directive 2006/42/EC; in North America the equivalent robot safety work sits with A3, which maintains the R15 series.

Because a robot standing alone at a machine and a robot handing parts to central conveying are different scopes of supply, a quotation that does not state the integration scope cannot be compared with one that does. Add an in-mould labelling cell or a vision check and the scope grows again. We never let those scopes be compared as one line.

Hidden cost 5: the stroke model bought for reach you never use

What the quotation shows: a model with a reach. What it hides: that reach has a cycle-time price and a mass price attached to it. What it costs: seconds on every cycle and kilograms of steel on the floor. How to price it: compare the published take-out time against your actual cycle target before you accept the model.

Our published minimum take-out times are 1.7 seconds on the 700 I, 1.8 on the 900 I and 2.1 on the 1100 I – a 24 percent increase, explained entirely by how far the vertical axis travels, because the vertical stroke grows from 680 mm to 1080 mm on the 3-axis versions. The payload does not change: all three carry the same 6 kg maximum load. A buyer who assumes a bigger machine means a heavier duty is paying for reach the part does not need, in cycle time.

One more trap sits in the same column. The published take-out time is the mechanical motion from mould open to part clear, so it excludes injection, cooling and dwell, and it is never a production cycle time. Buyers who compare it with their cycle target are comparing two different things. Our article on take out robot price by payload walks through the model-to-tonnage map, and the payback calculator shows how to test the investment against recovered cycle time.

The comparable quote: eight lines to demand before you compare prices

Two quotations can only be compared line by line, which means the scope has to be written down before the number. This is the list I ask for when a buyer wants a comparison they can defend:

1. Model class and axis count, named, with the published stroke and payload values.
2. The stroke table row it is quoted against, and the take-out time that follows from it.
3. Tooling scope: which gripper, whose design, and what is excluded.
4. Installation and commissioning scope, in days and in who supplies the labour.
5. Interface scope: which handshake standard, whose cable, whose responsibility.
6. Plant requirements: air pressure and consumption, power supply, cabinet ingress.
7. Delivery, payment terms, and what the warranty covers on site.
8. Spares list and service response commitment after commissioning.

Send those eight lines to every supplier, in the same order, and the quotations become comparable in a way a headline number never is. If a supplier declines to answer one of them, that is information too.

What we publish, and what we will not print

We publish specifications and we do not publish a price list, and that is a deliberate position rather than a missing page. Every product page in our take-out robot series ends with the same three lines: a full specification table, a payment-terms line reading T/T, L/C, PAYPAL, Western Union, and a request for a quotation. A single number would be wrong for every configuration in the band, and a wrong number is worse than none.

Instead we ask for four inputs: machine clamping tonnage, part weight including the runner, target cycle time, and the machine handshake protocol. Send those four and we return a model recommendation and a written quotation within one business day. We have built plastic injection molding automation equipment since 2004, from hopper dryers and auto loaders to central conveying, on one philosophy: design with perspective, quality controlled to a high standard, service with a warm heart. Send the four numbers to our contact page and the reply will contain the specification, not a teaser.

Questions from purchasing managers

The short version

Before you compare prices, compare the five lines the prices do not contain: installation and rigging, tooling, plant air and electrical, the machine handshake, and the cycle cost of the stroke model. All five can be priced in advance from published specifications, and only a buyer who quotes them explicitly gives you a quotation you can compare. Send us the four numbers and the reply will contain the specification behind every line.