Which Robot Brand Covers Your Payload? We Checked All 20.
Only ABB covers 0.5 kg to 550 kg. FANUC reaches 1700 kg but floors at 6 kg. Eight brands cap at 35 kg. Here is which brand fits your payload, from 20 brands and 264 robots.
Eight robot brands in our database cap at 35 kg or below. If your process needs a 50 kg arm, nearly half the brands you might be evaluating can’t help you. Of 20 brands and 264 robots in the Industrial Robotics Hub database, only ABB spans both ends of the market: 0.5 kg at the precision floor to 550 kg at the heavy-payload ceiling.
That single data point is the buying insight this post is built around. Brand loyalty is not just a procurement preference — it is a payload commitment. Pick the wrong brand and you lock yourself out of entire payload tiers before you have written a single RFQ.
Why does payload ladder matter when choosing a brand?
Most robot buying decisions start with a single cell. You have one process, one payload requirement, one arm to spec. The brand ladder becomes a problem the second that assumption changes.
In a multi-cell factory, cells are not identical. A precision assembly cell might handle 2 kg components. A press-tending cell a floor away might need a 150 kg arm. A palletizing cell at the end of the line might need 300 kg+. If you standardize on a brand early — because your integrator knows it, because your spare parts room stocks it, because your technicians are trained on its controller — and that brand does not cover the full payload range your factory uses, you will restart your evaluation from zero when the next cell comes up.
The ladder matters for multi-site manufacturers especially. A company running 40 cells across 6 facilities has a real cost every time they introduce a second brand: a second training program, a second spare parts inventory, a second service contract, a second programming environment. Payload coverage is not an abstract spec question. It is a supplier-count question.
Which brands cover the widest payload range?
The table below ranks the top 12 brands in our database by payload spread (maximum payload minus minimum payload). Read the floor as carefully as the ceiling.
| Brand | Robots tracked | Payload min | Payload max | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FANUC | 17 | 6 kg | 1700 kg | 1694 kg |
| KUKA | 19 | 3 kg | 1000 kg | 997 kg |
| Estun | 13 | 4 kg | 700 kg | 696 kg |
| Kawasaki | 15 | 3 kg | 500 kg | 497 kg |
| ABB | 24 | 0.5 kg | 550 kg | 549.5 kg |
| Yaskawa | 21 | 0.5 kg | 320 kg | 319.5 kg |
| Siasun | 11 | 3 kg | 210 kg | 207 kg |
| Staubli | 11 | 1 kg | 190 kg | 189 kg |
| Rokae | 14 | 3 kg | 45 kg | 42 kg |
| AUBO | 11 | 3 kg | 35 kg | 32 kg |
| Universal Robots | 9 | 3 kg | 35 kg | 32 kg |
| JAKA | 13 | 1 kg | 30 kg | 29 kg |
Source: our analysis of 264 robots across 20 brands in the Industrial Robotics Hub database. Omron (12 robots, 5-1500 kg) is excluded from this table because its high-payload entries are AMRs, not robot arms — the arm range is narrower.
FANUC carries the widest absolute spread: the FANUC M-2000iA/1700L is the ceiling, at 1700 kg — a structural crane that happens to be articulated. The full FANUC line runs from 6 kg to 1700 kg, a spread of 1694 kg across 17 robots tracked in our database. That number is not close. You can see the full FANUC robot range on their product page.
The catch: FANUC floors at 6 kg. There is nothing below 6 kg in our FANUC data. If your precision cell handles 1-3 kg parts at tight repeatability tolerances, FANUC does not have an arm for it in the articulated arm class as currently tracked. The brand dominates the heavy tier. It leaves the sub-5 kg precision tier to others.
KUKA runs 3 kg to 1000 kg, a 997 kg spread across 19 robots. The KUKA KR 1000 TITAN anchors the high end. KUKA floors at 3 kg — better than FANUC but still no sub-3 kg micro-precision arm in our data.
Which brands are cobot-only or near-cobot?
Eight brands in our database cap at 35 kg or below. For a buyer running a mixed factory — sub-10 kg assembly plus anything heavier — this matters more than product headlines.
| Brand | Robots | Max payload | Robot types |
|---|---|---|---|
| HANS Robot | 8 | 15 kg | Cobot only |
| Dobot | 9 | 20 kg | Cobot only |
| Inovance | 9 | 25 kg | Articulated, SCARA |
| Techman | 9 | 25 kg | Cobot only |
| Doosan | 12 | 30 kg | Cobot + palletizer |
| JAKA | 13 | 30 kg | Cobot only |
| Universal Robots | 9 | 35 kg | Cobot only |
| AUBO | 11 | 35 kg | Cobot only |
Source: our analysis of 264 robots in the Industrial Robotics Hub database. These 8 brands account for 80 robots and collectively top out at 35 kg. A buyer needing 40 kg+ will find none of them in the shortlist.
This is not a flaw. Read our post on non-automotive cobot adoption — AUBO, UR, Techman, Doosan, JAKA, and HANS built their entire catalogs for the SME flexible-automation tier. They are purpose-built for the cobot category: safe, deployable without full cage enclosures, trainable by technicians rather than robot programmers. For an electronics assembly shop or a food-handling line that stays under 20 kg across every cell, these brands are the right answer. The catalog is narrow because the customer need is narrow.
The problem surfaces when you scale. If you run 90% of your cells in the 5-20 kg range and then a new heavy-press cell opens up at 80 kg, none of the eight brands above follow you. You are adding a second brand, a second controller platform, and a second supplier relationship. If you planned for that, fine. If you assumed your preferred brand would cover it, you are re-evaluating under time pressure.
Seven of these eight brands are Chinese or Taiwanese manufacturers — JAKA, AUBO, HANS, Dobot, Techman, Inovance, Doosan (Korean). That is not a quality comment. Several are expanding their catalogs. But as of our current database, the payload ceiling for this group is 35 kg, and the brands with the longest track records in heavy automation — FANUC, KUKA, ABB, Kawasaki — are not in this group.
Which brand is the true full-ladder provider?
One brand in our data has a robot under 1 kg AND a robot over 500 kg: ABB, with a 0.5 kg floor and a 550 kg ceiling across 24 robots.
That sounds like a marketing superlative. It is actually a structural fact about catalog architecture. ABB covers articulated arms, cobots, SCARA, and delta robots across 24 entries in our database — the broadest catalog we track. At the low end: ABB cobots and compact articulated arms start at 0.5 kg (shared with Yaskawa, the only other brand that matches this floor). At the high end: ABB heavy articulated arms reach 550 kg for press tending, heavy foundry, and structural assembly. Read our robot pricing analysis for context on how brand depth correlates with pricing opacity.
FANUC has the wider absolute spread (1694 kg vs. 549.5 kg) but floors at 6 kg. KUKA floors at 3 kg and maxes at 1000 kg. Neither brand carries a sub-1 kg arm in our database. For a multi-site manufacturer that needs everything from watch-component handling at sub-1 kg (0.01 mm repeatability requirement) to heavy press tending at 300+ kg, ABB is currently the only single-brand answer in our data.
Yaskawa deserves mention: 0.5 kg floor, 320 kg ceiling, 21 robots, 319.5 kg spread. It matches ABB’s precision floor and covers mid-heavy applications well. The ceiling difference (320 vs 550 kg) becomes relevant when you need to lift a car door, not a gearbox.
What this means when you build a robot strategy
The buying decision is not “which brand do I prefer.” It is “what is my payload range, and which brands can serve the full range.”
The audit should happen before you shortlist. Pull your existing and planned cell specs. Find your payload floor (the lightest part your most precision-sensitive cell will handle) and your payload ceiling (the heaviest lift your heaviest planned cell will need). That range defines the brands that can serve you with a single-brand strategy.
If your range stays between 3 kg and 35 kg, eight brands serve you cleanly. UR, Doosan, JAKA, and the rest were built exactly for this envelope. You have maximum competition, good price pressure, and no ladder gaps.
If your range spans 1 kg to 100 kg, the field narrows. ABB, Yaskawa, KUKA, Kawasaki, and Estun can serve the full range. FANUC can serve the 6-100 kg portion but leaves you short at the precision floor.
If your range spans sub-1 kg to 200 kg or more, you are choosing between ABB as a single-brand answer, or deliberately accepting a two-brand strategy. The IFR World Robotics 2024 report documents 4.28 million operational industrial robots globally — the installed base is already multi-brand in most large facilities. A two-brand strategy is not a failure. It is often the engineered answer: one cobot brand for flexible SME cells, one heavy articulated brand for the high-payload tier. Name it explicitly in your procurement plan, cost the second training program and second spare-parts stock, and make the choice on purpose rather than discovering it post-installation.
The payload ceiling is the spec to audit first. Not the brand’s marketing position, not the headline model — the ceiling for arms you will actually buy at prices that exist. Know the range, then shortlist. The brands will follow from the data.
Compare these robots