FANUC CR-15iA Cobot Financing

Fifteen kilograms of payload at 1,441 mm of reach puts the FANUC CR-15iA at the boundary between what a collaborative robot can handle and what it cannot. Most cobot platforms top out around 10 kg before the arm needs to step up to a traditional industrial robot with safety guarding. The CR-15iA pushes that ceiling to 15 kg, which opens a meaningful category of applications, including heavier part transfer, tending mid-size injection molding equipment, and assembly tasks involving multiple sub-components picked simultaneously. The throughput and payback math for a 15 kg cobot cell is different from a 10 kg unit because the range of tasks it can handle without replanning the cell design is broader.

We finance CR-15iA installations from $50,000. A complete application-ready cell with the arm, controller, custom EOAT, and a floor stand runs $90,000 to $180,000 depending on complexity. Application-only approval covers that entire range. Funding arrives in about two weeks from a clean application start. For manufacturers who have already deployed smaller cobots and are scaling up to handle heavier workpieces, the CR-15iA is the most natural step, and the financing can wrap both the new arm and any peripheral tooling upgrades.

The CR-15iA uses the same R-30iB Plus controller architecture as the broader FANUC industrial lineup, which means shops already programming FANUC arms face a minimal learning curve. The collaborative safety is achieved through FANUC's DCS (dual-check safety) power-and-force-limiting implementation, which monitors joint torque in real time and stops the arm before the force exceeds safe thresholds for human contact. This approach allows the arm to run at reduced speed in a shared workspace without requiring a physical safety fence.

The collaborative speed mode does reduce cycle time versus a fenced installation at the same payload. For applications where throughput is the primary metric, a traditional fenced arm will always outrun a cobot at equivalent payload. The CR-15iA earns its place in applications where sharing floor space with a human operator reduces cell complexity more than the speed difference costs. Loading test fixtures, presenting parts to operators for quality checks, and performing sub-assembly tasks adjacent to a manual line are examples where the cobot format wins on total cost of cell design even if it loses on pure cycle time.

For manufacturers in plastics and injection molding automation who are tending mid-size injection presses, the 15 kg payload handles the part masses common in molded consumer and industrial components where the 10 kg limit of smaller cobots falls short. The CR-15iA fits that exact gap. Many molding operations are adding cobots at the press side by side with human operators who manage purging and quality sampling tasks that the robot cannot perform without additional vision systems.

The most common financing path for a CR-15iA cell is a 48 or 60-month equipment loan. The loan creates ownership from day one, the asset goes on the balance sheet, and the buyer captures depreciation including first-year bonus depreciation under current tax rules. For a $130,000 cell, the monthly payment on a 60-month loan at market rates is low enough to be covered by the labor offset from a single position eliminated in the first month of production. That is the payback model that makes sense for most buyers.

An alternative path is an industrial robot equipment lease with an FMV or $1 buyout option at term end. The FMV lease produces a lower monthly payment and gives the buyer the option to walk away, renew, or buy at fair market value when the term expires. For buyers who expect to upgrade to a higher-payload arm or to a different platform in five years, the FMV lease preserves that flexibility without forcing an early termination of a loan. The $1 buyout lease functions like a loan but is structured as a lease for accounting or cash flow purposes specific to that buyer's situation.

For manufacturers deploying a mixed fleet of cobots and traditional robots, a single equipment loan facility covering the full fleet is often cleaner than individual deals on each arm. We have structured portfolio facilities covering a dozen cobots, several traditional arms, and the associated tooling as a single loan with individual asset schedules. That reduces the administrative overhead of managing multiple lenders and payment dates while keeping each asset individually tracked for maintenance and depreciation purposes.

If the CR-15iA project is part of a broader automation buildout at a facility that also includes conveyor and automation line equipment, those components can be wrapped into the same facility rather than financed separately or paid from cash. Automation lines designed around a cobot hub often include conveyors, fixtures, vision systems, and safety infrastructure that together represent a significant capital investment, all of which belongs in one place on the financing rather than scattered across multiple instruments.

Owners frequently line this up against Estun Robot Financing, Yamaha Robotics Financing, and FANUC Robot Financing.