Inside the robotic and hard automation applications of manufacturing plants across the world, there are imperfect methods used to try and create a perfect, repeatable processes. Think about the ideal situation in an automated welding environment: the joint, the gap, and the positioning are all perfectly placed, the robotic torch and arm are synced with the positioning of the material, and the result is acceptable.
Well, we don’t weld in utopia. And often times we don’t use the right tools for the job, even when they’re out there. What really happens far too often is the real material position and the programmed touch position are misaligned, the weld is poor and doesn’t meet quality control standards, and your team has to spend time and money to chase the right combination of set up and process parameters to get things back into specification.
Improving the weld quality in these environments has been an elusive endeavor. However, solutions exist to address these issues. Scansonic – an industrial product technology firm based out of Berlin, Germany, has developed various optical and tactile seam tracking solutions to help address the variation from part to part in typical operations and reduce the pains associated with automated welding. Overall, mass adoption of seam tracking technologies has been slow, but still this product persists and intrigues many within the manufacturing sector as a solution to a commonplace problem within the welding and joining industry.
... to continue reading you must be subscribed
