How Robotic Welding is Changing Heavy Fabrications
IoT and other advancements associated with Industry 4.0 have enabled a new era of robotics, increasing the productivity and precision of heavy fabrications. Robots are utilized for a variety of activities during heavy projects including loading/unloading, part handling, welding, painting, and assembly. Due to their repetitive nature, welding tasks are an excellent option for automation. Many industries employ robots for welding operations and some common forms of robotic welding include resistance, spot, arc, TIG, MIG, laser, and plasma welds. The presence of these robots across the factory floor is streamlining heavy fabrication projects.
As a proven heavy fabricator, ABS is committed to investing in technologies, such as our large and complex robotic welding cells, that drive efficiency and enhance quality. These “next gen” robots are far more precise and intuitive than older designs. ABS facilities offer several robotic cells designed to drive quality and throughput in heavy weld deposit applications.
Benefits of Robotic Welding
Heavy fabrications have historically been performed manually as robotic welding faced several barriers. Companies were often wary of the large investment required for the equipment and how long it would take to achieve the desired return on investment. Automated welding technologies have advanced significantly in recent years and are now better positioned to meet the demands of heavy projects. Robots are less expensive and more user-friendly and functional, opening the door for automated welding to expand. Robotic welding equipment is now present in many large and small machine shops as companies are confident automated welding improves the quality and consistency of the welds as well as the bottom line. Below are some of the key benefits of robotic welding. In addition to the production gains below, the use of robotic welding machines removes operators from higher risk, hazardous processes, improving personnel safety.
- Greater Productivity and Faster Speed to Market: obots are designed to execute a specific job, typically a repetitive task, and are known for their efficiency on the shop floor. Robots are able to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no breaks except for occasional maintenance. For this reason, robots are capable of higher welding productivity and throughput. Higher volumes and faster cycle times translate to lower costs and faster speed to market – providing a critical competitive edge.
- Higher Quality Welds: automation delivers superior precision. Manual welding can often introduce variance and inconsistencies, whereas, robotic welding machines are known for their excellent precision and unparalleled quality. Since robots produce more consistent, efficient welds with fewer errors, they drive production consistency – leading to fewer rejected parts and maximum efficiency.
- Reduced Waste and Cleanup: robots use the precise amount of material required for a given job and are not tempted to “over-weld”. Robotic welding typically consumes less materials and creates less waste than manual welding – delivering a huge time and money savings for machine shops. Also, less waste generation with robotic welding results in an easier and quicker post-weld cleanup – providing additional efficiency gains.
Is your team working on a heavy fabrication project that would benefit from the precision and quality of robotic welding?
Contact ABS to learn more about our fabrication solutions and cutting-edge robotic welding cells.
How Robotic Welding is Changing Heavy Fabrications
Below are some examples of how robotic welding is changing heavy projects. As robotic welding technologies continue to advance over time, their presence in machine shops will continue to grow.
- Improved Part Handling: heavy fabrications require specific tools, equipment, and processes to handle such large structures. Part handling and manipulation has sometimes been a challenge for robotic welding equipment. However, with the aid of track-mounting and positioners, today’s advanced robots are able to lift, rotate, and reposition heavy parts as needed, enabling access to the whole part for welding purposes.
- Enhanced Precision with Smart Sensors: when it comes to robotic welding, end-of-arm-tooling effectors are now often equipped with sensors that are IoT connected for real-time data collection and optimization. These sensors can also give robots a perceived sense of touch and sight during welding operations, improving weld performance real-time. Robotic systems are also enabled with seam tracking to account for part distortion that may occur during welding, allowing the robot to adjust as necessary for dimension changes. This level of detail is extremely valuable as it optimizes welding performance and improves consistency – saving fabricators and customers money and time.
- Efficiency Gains with Offline Programming: in the past, robots were updated via online programming that required production to stop in order to perform the necessary program updates. Recent programming and software advancements have led to offline programming where the robot can continue to work while programming is updated “offline”. This reduces the manual steps and downtime involved with setting up and updating robots, significantly increasing operations productivity.
ABS Fabrication and Robotic Welding Services
Established in 1971, ABS Machining has grown to become the recognized global leader in large machining, fabrication, and assembly for OEMs. The key to our success has been exceptional people, unparalleled facilities, and an unwavering commitment to quality. Our people are experts in their given field. Their expertise is matched only by their passion for serving our clients. We continue to invest in our people with education programs, cross training and in our internal accredited apprenticeship center.
ABS Heavy Fabrication is a full-service facility certified to CSA47.1 (AWSD1.1) and ASME Boiler Vessel B31.1 and 31.3 standards. Our welders are certified by CWB/AWS and ASME, and are fully trained on
flux-core, gas metal, submerge arc, tig and stick electrode welding techniques. Individual customer requirements are followed and enforced in conjunction with our in-house certified weld inspectors. (CWI Level 2's). Below are some of our fabrication services:
- Robotic Welding
- Flux Core Welding
- Forming
- Metal Fabrication
- Mig Welding
- Full Penetration Welding
- Sub Arc Welding
- Metal Core Welding
- Laser Cutting
We offer a unique combination of medium to high volume production machining and welding services. Our team is committed to producing an un-paralleled level of quality and throughput, while also focusing on cost. We also offer secondary services such as mechanical assembly, making ABS a true single source solution for the most challenging programs of today and for the future.
Contact us today to see how we can help with your fabrication project, or give us a call at 1-844-227-6224.
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