Robotic welding systems can be used to reduce costs and maximize output in large and small fabrication shops.  Today robotic systems can be easily programmed, speed and accuracy has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. 

 

• The robot cell layout must consider not just providing space for the work motion device, power source, robot controller and wire feed package, but how the piece part is delivered to the area, and how the finished part leaves the area. Work flow simplicity characterizes a good cell layout.
• When the proper decision-making process is followed, it is often possible to justify the cost of a robotic welding system by relying upon somewhat conventional measures.
• This has become truer in the past decade, as robotics have offered increasingly better performance at sharply lower prices, while labor and benefit costs have continued to rise. 
• Worker and environmental safety factors give robotic welding systems another edge in the cost-justification process. Failure to comply with OSHA and EPA standards can be expensive.
• Lastly, developments in electrode technology and welding torches, when combined with automation enhanced with vision systems, permit welding at speeds great enough to achieve overall cost reductions.
• He was unable to do so and resorted to ordering a robotic welding system that was shipped and installed within ten days.
• With some easy programming, simple tooling and straightforward operator training, the robot was productive very quickly.  In a different type of application, a company that makes the steel crossbeams that support the bodies of tractor/trailer rigs ordered a robotic welding system.
• In this case, the company developed its own automated tooling to "customize" the performance of a standard robotic welding cell to its specific needs. Employing several hundred people, it is a significantly larger company than the creeper manufacturer.
• Robotic welding technology now delivers quality, productivity, and safety with more flexibility and with greater ease than any of us could have imagined ten years ago. Remember, the stakes are higher than ever before. It is time for fabricators, to discover the truth about robotics and investigate their effectiveness for themselves.