The use of robots to increase production and improve quality is growing rapidly in the U.S. Robots can reduce the number of employees necessary to complete projects therefore reducing overhead.
- The number of robotic cells in U.S. industry has doubled since 1992, from 46,000 to 92,000.
- The U.S. is second only to Japan (with about 460,000 robots in use) in worldwide robot usage.
- One trend that is pushing companies toward more automation is the declining number of trained welders.
- (A rule-of-thumb is that a welding robot can do the work of three or more
- manual welders.)
- The following are some common arc welding gun, torch, peripheral, and other considerations for robotic welding.
- The parameters for robotic welding may be higher than for manual welding to accommodate a higher duty cycle and a possibly faster wire feeding.
- Normally, the wire feeder for robotic welding is mounted on the robot arm, separate from the power supply.
- For robotic welding, a control interface between the robot controller and the power supply and wire feeder is needed.
- While some might think that a robotic GMAW torch is nothing more than a manual gun attached to a robotarm, there are significant differences.
- Some robotic guns have integrated wire incher controls, and all but the most basic models have emergency-stop capability to prevent damage to the robot arm and the welding gun in the event of a collision.
- Robotic gun design should take into account the need for automatic cleaning.
- Because a robotic torch probably will be running at a much higher duty cycle than a manual torch, those who are shopping for equipment must decide on an air- or water-cooled torch.
- If robot arc-on time is going to exceed 60 percent, a fabricator may have to use a larger air-cooled robotic torch than the manual gun previously used for the application or switch to a water-cooled model.
- Generally, the price of the welding torch is a relatively small part of the cost of a robotic workcell.
- A robotic torch should be chosen with the emphasis on the capabilities needed for a fabricator's particular applications rather than cost considerations.
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