Techman TM16

What it's for

The TM16 is a Taiwanese cobot with a 16 kg payload and a 900 mm reach, also sold under the Omron brand. In packing, the TM16 can move heavy boxes from the conveyor onto a pallet, and the 5 MP color camera built into the arm recognizes where the cartons sit, with no separate vision system. Repeatability is ±0.1 mm, average TCP speed is 1.1 m/s, and protection is IP54 for the arm (IP32 for the control box, IP40 for the handheld pendant); approval for ISO 3 cleanrooms opens the door to more demanding environments. The manufacturer's listed tasks are assembly, packing, material handling and machine feeding. You program it with flowcharts in TMflow, which makes it easy for people with no coding background to get started. In a factory, see factories, the robot will handle heavier parts; in a lab or cleanroom line, see laboratories, it benefits from the cleanliness class. Choose the TM16X variant without the camera where vision is unnecessary. A 900 mm reach means the workstation has to be designed close to the robot; for farther points choose Techman TM12.

Who it's for

Best suited to: plants that need a 16 kg payload in a cobot with built-in vision and value ISO 3 cleanroom approval or IP54 protection. Packing and palletizing lines handling heavier items. Companies that already use Omron automation and want a single supplier. Who it is not for: workstations where reach matters, because 900 mm is not much; in that case look at Techman TM12 or Techman TM25S. Not for buyers who only buy at a public list price: the manufacturer does not publish one, and sales run through a network of Omron distributors with individual quotes. Not for anyone who wants to use the robot straight out of the box: a cobot needs a risk assessment under “Robot Safety Standards”, and that depends on the tool and the load.

Deployments

We have no documented deployments of the TM16 specifically. What is confirmed is that the Techman family is available through Polish distributors (tfm-robotics.pl, techman.renexrobotics.pl). In the cobot category, typical tasks are assembly, packing and palletizing; you will find Polish companies in “Polish Robotics Companies”. Omron, which sells the robot under its own brand, has a profile here: Omron Robotics. It is worth asking the distributor for references from packing or cleanroom lines, because that is where ISO 3 and IP54 make a difference.

The direct alternative at the same payload is the UR16e from Universal Robots: 16 kg, 900 mm reach, on the market since 2019, available in Poland through elmark.com.pl; vision is usually a separate add-on there, whereas the TM16 has the camera as standard. The AUBO i16 is the heaviest model in its series and, sold in Europe by Unchained Robotics for roughly EUR 21,000 net, the only one in this group with a publicly known price. The Techman TM20 from the same family offers 20 kg. The FANUC CRX-20iA/L (20 kg, 1418 mm) is aimed at palletizing and is available through spawalnictwo.pl. The choice depends on whether you need a camera included and how much price transparency matters to you. For comparison, also look at the Techman TM14 if 14 kg is enough and the 1100 mm reach matters more than two extra kilograms of payload.

The TM16 belongs to the Techman TM family alongside the TM5, TM12, TM14 and TM20 and is also sold under the Omron brand; the Omron datasheet for the TM5/12/14/16/20 series is our main source for its parameters. In payload it sits between the TM14 (14 kg) and the TM20 (20 kg). The manufacturer, Techman Robot, a subsidiary of Taiwan's Quanta Storage, has operated since 2016. We have no confirmed launch date for the TM16, so we do not give one. It pays to know how to read a datasheet, and “How to Read a Robot Datasheet” will help.