Arc Welding Automation

It is very well known that the use of robotics in the industry increases productivity and quality in many aspects. It is also well known that some adjustments have to be made to grant payback for the investment and to reach the expected results. Today, the robotization is known as an alternate technique for production, increasing qualitative and quantitative competence of its industries. One point that has been observed in some applications is that inadequate procedure for robot application in welding process reflects in insatisfactory results. These procedures are excessive time expending for implementation, material loss, reworking and poor weld quality. The main problem detected is that the number of experts in welding “and” robotics is still reduced and some industries are investing in robot without any planning or orientation, believing that the robot will solve all their problems. The results have been disastrous. In many cases even though the weld appearance is acceptable and the welding time is significantly reduced, the weld quality is poor. The experts in robotics know very well what they are doing. However, many of them do not have experience in welding to understand that many features related to welding physics and metallurgy have to be considered when a welding procedure has to be implemented. Because of this, some small and medium industries with large potential for robotization are holding investment and/or postponing it until its adaptation to implement the robot in their production line. It is believed however that very soon many small industries will have their own robot.