Yaskawa launches 7-axis painting robot with 3,050 mm reach for car bodies
Yaskawa Electric said in a news release on Oct 28 that it has launched the MOTOMAN-PA3050HB, a 7-axis painting robot with a 15 kg payload and a 3,050 mm reach that the company calls the longest in its class.
An extra bending axis in the upper arm and a 500 mm offset between the first two axes let it keep a good painting posture close to its base without hitting booth walls; it targets car bodies and bumpers and runs on the YRC1000 controller.
Yaskawa Electric said in a news release on Oct 28 that it has launched the MOTOMAN-PA3050HB, a large 7-axis painting robot with a 15 kg payload and a 3,050 mm reach, which Yaskawa describes as the longest among painting robots in its class.
The design answers a familiar problem in paint shops. A six-axis arm built for a long reach needs long links, which makes it awkward to paint surfaces close to the robot and raises the risk of hitting booth walls behind it; earlier 7-axis arms solved that at the cost of harder programming. Yaskawa adds a redundant bending axis to the upper arm and offsets the first two axes by 500 mm, so the robot can be mounted high above the workpiece and still fold into a good posture near its base. The company says operation stays comparable to a six-axis robot. The longer reach allows smaller booths, which Yaskawa links to lower air-conditioning energy and CO2. Left and right mirror versions are offered, and the YRC1000 controller sets paint flow, electrostatic voltage and air directly from the robot program. Price and volume targets were not given.
MEKAWIRE context: the launch lands as Japanese car plants start buying again. JARA's Q3 2026 figures, covered in our Japan robotics market explainer, showed 2,533 robots shipped to domestic automotive plants, the first year-on-year rise in seven quarters, while Yaskawa's own robot segment profit fell 43% in the first half of FY2026 as we reported in our H1 results analysis.