FANUC CRX-3iA

What it's for

The CRX-3iA is the smallest cobot in the FANUC family, and that immediately defines its territory: stations where precision and limited space count, not strength. Payload is 3 kg, reach is 692 mm, there are six axes, and force sensors sit in the structure of the arm. The manufacturer names assembly and quality inspection as typical tasks.

The manufacturer names assembly and quality inspection, tasks such as pressing in connectors, driving small screws or presenting a part to a measuring station. An arm of this class takes over the repetitive part of the work, while a person stays on tasks that require judgment. Our catalogue has no confirmed deployment of this model.

In industry, similar arms work well on hand-sized subassemblies: inserts, sensors, small control modules factories. In laboratories laboratories the manufacturer's second listed application comes into play, inspection: the arm presents a sample to a measuring station always at the same angle and with the same force. Built-in force sensitivity makes sense where the part is delicate and must not be crushed.

For people with no prior experience, FANUC offers a tablet pendant with drag-and-drop programming, which we cover in the article on the whole series “FANUC CRX: The Cobot Series with 8 Years of Zero Maintenance”. An important note on scope: 3 kg is the payload including the gripper, so less is left for the part itself. It is worth calculating the tooling before you buy Robotiq.

Who it's for

A good fit: small and mid-sized plants that assemble small components in batches and want to take a first step into automation; quality inspection lines where repeatability matters more than power; companies that already have FANUC robots on the floor and value a common service ecosystem.

Not a good choice for: if your parts weigh several kilograms or have to be moved more than a meter, you need a model higher up the series, the FANUC CRX-10iA. Nor is it a choice for research labs seeking open access to low-level control; there it is better to look at research arms such as the Franka Research 3. For readers who do not yet know how a cobot differs from an industrial robot, we recommend starting with the introduction “What Is a Cobot and How Does It Differ from an Industrial Robot”.

Deployments

FANUC products are offered in the country by spawalnictwo.pl, but without a confirmed offer for the 3iA variant specifically. The CRX family as a whole is sold globally for assembly, machine tending and quality inspection, and in Poland cobots already work at customers of Universal Robots and Doosan “Doosan Robotics: Cobots from the Korean Maker in Poland”. Ask your supplier for references in similar applications rather than assuming you will find them online.

The nearest alternative in the same weight class is the UR3e from Universal Robots: a 3 kg payload and the largest accessory ecosystem among cobots; its indicative price is around PLN 135,667 (≈ EUR 31,090) (an estimate from a market overview). If you need slightly more, the FANUC CRX-5iA from the same family has 5 kg and a 994 mm reach, so more room for the gripper.

If contact sensitivity and research work matter to you, look at the Franka Research 3 (7 axes, 3 kg, roughly PLN 116,286 (≈ EUR 26,650) as an estimate). The KUKA LBR iisy 3 R760 with a 3 kg payload is an option for users tied to the KUKA ecosystem; its price converts to around PLN 102,600 (≈ EUR 23,510) (from euros at a rate of 4.3770). A comparison of the whole 5 kg class is in the Universal Robots roundup “Universal Robots UR5e, UR10e and UR20 Compared”.

FANUC is a company from Oshino in Yamanashi Prefecture, founded in 1972 and today one of the largest in the world in industrial robotics FANUC. The CRX series is its entry into the world of cobots, until then known mainly from fenced industrial robots. The family comprises six to seven variants from 3 to 30 kg, and the CRX-3iA is its smallest member. The exact launch date of this model is not documented, so we do not give one; nor are there dated events attached to the model, so we do not invent generations.