Robotic welding system financing

A welding robot is how a fabrication shop keeps up when it can't hire enough welders, and the collaborative robot has made it something a 20-person shop can buy. iFinancial Group finances cobot welders and turnkey robotic welding cells, with the integration, fixturing and guarding on the same approval, on a one-page application. No tax returns and no audited financial statements to apply, no minimum and up to $1,000,000.

Who you're dealing with

iFinancial Group has funded equipment since 1997, roughly $600 million of it, in all 50 states. We're a direct lender, not a broker, so the file is underwritten in house and not shopped around. Our customers have ranged from independent manufacturers to global technology companies. We've barely advertised in almost three decades. The business came from repeat customers, referrals, and vendors sending us their customers.

What you're financing

Cobot welding packages, a collaborative arm with the welding power source, torch and a table, typically run about $60,000 to $120,000. Turnkey robotic welding cells with an industrial robot, a positioner, fixturing and guarding run roughly $150,000 to $400,000. Multi-robot lines run higher.

Those are market ranges. The robot, the power source, the positioner, the fixturing and the integrator's scope move them.

What goes on the same approval

The robot, the welding power source, the torch and cleaning station, the positioner, the fixtures, the safety guarding or light curtains, fume extraction and the integrator's engineering go on one approval. Integration is often a third of the price of a robotic cell, and financing it with the cell is the point of doing it as one deal.

Installation, programming and operator training are soft costs and can ride on the same deal, on many deals up to 30% of the total.

Who buys them and how the payment gets covered

Fabrication shops and contract manufacturers, trailer and truck body builders, agricultural and construction equipment makers, furniture and fixture manufacturers, and OEMs with repeat weldments. The case is usually labor: a robot welds a repeat part on every shift the shop can't staff, and the welders the shop does have move to the work a robot can't do.

A new cell ramps as the programs are written. A deferred first payment, typically up to 90 days, covers the integration and the start.

New or used

Used industrial welding robots typically trade from about $20,000 to $80,000, and used cells from $60,000 to $200,000. A used robot reintegrated for a new part is a normal purchase. Dealers, integrators, auctions and private sales are all financeable here.

On a used robot, the hours, the reducer and cable condition and the controller version get the inspection. On the financing side it's the invoice or bill of sale, the serial number, a lien search on a private sale, and proof of what was paid.

What slows a robotic welding deal down

The integrator's timeline. A turnkey cell is engineered, built and tested before it ships, and the integrator wants progress payments. On qualifying transactions we can pay at order so the deposit is part of the financing. An approval holds up to 60 days.

The invoice should show the robot, the positioner, the fixtures and the integration so the whole cell is financed, not just the arm.

How it works with iFinancial Group

It's the same one-page application whether the equipment is small or the deal runs to $1,000,000: no tax returns and no audited financial statements to apply, no minimum and up to $1,000,000. Decisions typically come back within 24 hours, and an approval holds up to 60 days. New and used equipment, terms up to 84 months, and soft costs up to 30% so freight, setup and training can go in the same deal. Payment structures beyond level payments are there when the equipment earns unevenly. We've been doing this since 1997, in all 50 states.

Other manufacturing equipment: CNC machining center, CNC lathe, fiber laser cutting machine, press brake, injection molding machine, waterjet cutting machine, industrial 3D printer, forklift, packaging machinery. Or start with manufacturing equipment financing.