FANUC America will run live welding, cutting, assembly, AI, and painting demonstrations across two booths at FABTECH 2026, [dates, location]. The focus is on fabrication jobs that have been hard to automate, such as vertical-up welding on large structural steel, high-mix finishing, and work orders that arrive handwritten.

Visitors will find welding, plasma cutting, laser processing, and assembly in the Main Booth (#S40006), and collaborative and industrial paint robots in the Paint Booth (#S11008).

New Products Making a FABTECH Debut

CRX-3iA Collaborative Robot

At 24 lb (11 kg), the CRX-3iA is the lightest model in FANUC's CRX cobot line and is designed to be carried and repositioned by one person. It handles 6.6-lb (3-kg) payloads with a 27-in (692-mm) reach.

At FABTECH, it will be mounted to structural steel on a magnetic base to perform vertical-up welding. This brings robotic welding to shipbuilding and large structural fabrication, where parts are too big to bring to a fixed cell. It's aimed at fabricators who need automation that moves to the work.

P-55/15-21A Paint Robot

This midsize paint robot has a 33-lb (15-kg) payload and an 83-in (2,100-mm) reach for coating large parts. It's FANUC's first paint robot to run on the new R-50iA controller, which consolidates all functions, including explosion-proof circuits, into a single cabinet. It's available in right- or left-hand configurations for symmetrical paint line layouts.

In the demo, it will use integrated line tracking and a VersaBell 3 applicator to paint football helmets as they move down a line, showing how coating stays consistent on continuously moving parts.

Welding Demonstrations

Portable Vertical-Up Welding: The CRX-3iA welds structural steel from a magnetic mount.

Scan-Based Weld Programming: A CRX-10iA/L pairs wrist-mounted controls with Servo Robot Smart Ring technology and a path-planning algorithm. Operators scan the part to generate weld programs, which cuts programming time for shops without dedicated robot programmers.

Cobot Welding with Auxiliary Axes: A CRX-10iA/L travels on a seventh-axis linear rail while a positioner rotates a lawn mower deck 180° for seam-tracked welds on multiple sides, demonstrating coordinated motion on a collaborative system.

Heavy-Equipment Welding: An M-950/500F-28A, with a 1,102-lb (500-kg) payload and 111-in (2,830-mm) reach, works in coordination with two ARC Mate robots to simulate welding an excavator bucket. This is relevant to construction and heavy equipment manufacturers.

Assembly, Welding, and Inspection in One Cell: CRX-30iA and CRX-10iA cobots handle assembly, welding, and post-weld inspection in a single work cell, consolidating three process steps and reducing floor space and part handling.

Cutting and Laser Processing Demonstrations

Robotic Plasma Cutting: A CRX-10iA/L runs Shape Generation 3 software with a dedicated Hypertherm plasma interface, simplifying setup so shops can bring robotic cutting online without extensive programming expertise.

Laser Welding and Marking: An LR-10iA/10 laser processing cell performs precision corner welds on stainless steel sheet metal, then laser-marks each finished part. Two value-added processes run in one cell.

Assembly Demonstration

Automated Torque Tightening: A CRX-30iA with a 66-lb (30-kg) payload tightens bolts on a dozer track using integrated force control and screw-tightening technology. Real-time torque validation provides a quality record for critical fastening operations.

AI Demonstration

AI-Powered Kitting: A CRX-20iA with FANUC iRVision captures a handwritten work order and sends it to Google Cloud, where a Gemini Enterprise AI agent identifies the required parts and quantities and generates picking instructions. An LR Mate robot then picks and places the components. For plants that still run on paper travelers, this shows a path to automated kitting without first digitizing every work order.

Painting Demonstrations

Line-Tracking Paint Application: The P-55/15-21A paints moving helmets.

Collaborative Painting for High-Mix Finishing: The CRX-10iA/L Paint, which FANUC calls the world's first explosion-proof collaborative paint robot, has a 22-lb (10-kg) payload and 56-in (1,418-mm) reach. Scan-to-Path and no-code programming make it suited to finishing operations with frequent product changeovers.

Supporting Technologies

Across both booths, FANUC will also show its iRVision, coordinated motion, integrated force control, and laser processing technologies, along with its R-50iA and R-30iB Plus controller platforms.