Has anyone ever figured out if there is a proper channel to purchase an Allen Bradley part as a discount for your FIRST team?
Typically Allen Bradley / Rockwell automation parts are sold through a distributor. In my area, I would have to buy the part through Kendall Electric. The problem is Kendall is not going to give me a discount for an Allen Bradley part I want.
So I am curious if there is a direct portal, direct contact to Rockwell products where a part can be purchased for discount? Has anyone done that?
That is a problem dealing with Rockwell. Also even if you received a discount, you would have to use list price unless the discount was easily available to all First teams. Rockwell’s list price is fictional number that nobody actually pays
Rockwell only sells through distributors (which I know you are aware of), the only option outside of that is to go to a third party reseller like Radwell and see if you can get it for cheaper on the industrial eBay market.
Rockwell does have an educational discount program, our distributor (Border States Electric) has told me about it before but I never pursued further since it seemed to be focused more on buying PLCs and equipment for class instruction rather than sensors for use on a robot.
Does your company have a contract with negotiated rates with your distributor? A lot of distributors will let you pay with a personal method at will-call while referencing the corporate account for the rate to let you leverage the discount your company receives. At my last employer I was able to get Lexan at a significant discount from Grainger this way, it has no impact on the corporate account as long as you pay for it personally and don’t have them ship it. (pertinent disclaimer - if you think your company might have an issue with this check their internal policies first)