Since the advent of industrial robots, welding has been one of the most common robotic tasks. The world's first industrial robot, Unimate, helped the automotive industry with spot welding in 1961. In recent years, welding robots have helped many companies solve the problem of recruiting highly skilled welders. According to statistics from the American Welding Society, by 2024, the US welding industry will face a shortage of 400,000 welders.
Industrial robots are well-suited for performing certain welding processes. They not only address the shortage of skilled workers but also significantly improve productivity, quality, and efficiency.
RoboDK-Fanuc robotic welding: However, programming robots is a significant challenge for many companies. For smaller, more frequent tasks, the time spent programming the robot can exceed the time required to complete the task manually. In such cases, companies often choose to abandon using robots for the welding task.
Fortunately, we now have a simple way to program robots to achieve perfect welds in a short time. In this article, we will introduce 5 advantages of robotic welding and 5 steps to achieve robotic welding.
Advantages of robotic welding
Highly experienced welders can accurately meet the requirements of welding processes, producing very neat weld joints. However, welding can actually be done much better by robots. Even the best welders cannot match the consistency, speed, and efficiency of machines. The significant advantages of robotic welding include the following:
1. High production capacity
Robots operate faster than humans, thus shortening product production cycles. Furthermore, robots don't need rest periods, allowing the saved time to be used to increase output; these small gains can accumulate and significantly boost the overall production line's output.
2. Rational utilization of technical personnel
The shortage of skilled workers will not be resolved in the short term; industry has been concerned for over a decade, and the number of vacant skilled worker positions will only increase. Utilizing robotic welding as much as possible can better leverage the skilled personnel within a team.
3. High quality
Even the most skilled and consistent welding technicians cannot defeat robots. With proper hardware configuration, robots can accurately repeat their actions and produce high-quality products every time.
4. High-safety industrial robots
Welding is a potentially dangerous job. It requires working in environments with high temperatures, sparks, high pressure, and high noise, which can pose risks to workers. Using machines to replace human labor is a human-centered approach to modern production.
5. High efficiency
To ensure welding quality, manual weld joints are typically larger than the area required by the machining process. Unnecessary welding area, even if only slightly larger than the required area, can accumulate into significant costs over time. Studies have shown that assuming each weld joint is 1 millimeter wider than required, it could cost a company an additional $10,000 per year.
5 Steps to Perfect Robotic Welding
While some believe robotic welding is difficult and time-consuming, in reality, achieving perfect robotic welding is quite easy with the right hardware and programming interface. Please refer to the following 5 steps:
1. Define your task and welding type.
Before starting any robotic application, it's crucial to clearly define your task. Determine which steps require robotic operation and which require manual intervention; write them down and discuss them with your team. You also need to specify the type of welding; there are several types, but the two most common are:
Spot welding – joining two pieces of metal together through several weld points. The process involves placing two electrodes on opposite sides of the metal pieces, and then heating the metal pieces by passing current through the electrodes, thus welding the metal together.
Arc welding is a process of welding two pieces of metal together at their common strip joint. An electrode directs current to the metals, and as the electrode moves linearly, the two pieces of metal melt together.
Spot welding is particularly common in industrial robot welding processes, especially in the automotive industry. However, robotic arc welding is now easier to implement than in the past, and its application has increased significantly.
2. Use appropriate hardware
Once your task is clear, you need to choose the appropriate robot hardware. The four most basic types of equipment are:
Robots – You need to select a robot based on the parameters of your welding task. For example, the robot needs to have a payload capacity greater than the weight of the welding tools, sufficient operating range, and suitability for your workshop environment.
Welding tools – These tools are selected according to the type of welding you need and have electronic switches for control via a robot controller.
Robot external axis – By using a robot external axis, the robot's operating space can be increased. Our model library contains many models of robot external axes.
Safety facilities – To ensure safety, adding isolation nets, detectors, etc. to the robot operating room are good options.
3. Use the correct programming interface
Many people's misconceptions about robotic welding stem from the programming involved in the welding process. While manually inputting the robot path between points using a robot teach pendant can be time-consuming and laborious, this is unnecessary. With the right hardware programming interface, robot programming can be achieved quickly and easily.
RoboDK includes two operation wizards designed for welding. You can use "Curve Tracing" to set up arc welding processes and "Spot Tracing" to quickly set up spot welding processes. These processes are easy to complete.
4. Calibration
Some people believe that offline programming software cannot generate accurate robotic welding programs. This statement is inaccurate. With proper calibration, offline programming can easily exceed the accuracy requirements of welding tasks. More information can be found in our articles.
5. Programming the robot
Once you have defined the task objectives, selected the appropriate programming interface, and calibrated the relationship between the programming interface and the actual hardware, the final step of programming the robot becomes very simple.
