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John Hart Automation - Robotic Welding Cell

John Hart Automation robotic welding cell in final testing before despatch to end-user.

 

The robotic welding cell features a FANUC Arc Mate 120iC welding robot with an integrated 7th axis servo positioner and a Lincoln Electric Power Wave S500 Advanced Process welder.

The system is designed to maximise the potential of the robots 20Kg payload, by both handling components weighing up to 5kg and 600mm in length as well as manipulating the welding torch to execute repeatable, perfect welds.

Using a three-jaw pneumatic gripper, the robot picks components from an infeed pallet that holds up to 150 parts, processes them though a pre-heat stage and places them into a two-jaw chuck mounted on the servo controlled rotary positioner.

Utilising the same three-jaw gripper, the robot then picks up the Binzel A500 welding torch from a cradle and executes several welds along the length of the component. The robot controls the weld speed of the rotary positioner from the robot program and the co-ordinated motion function. The weld conditions are controlled through the FANUC ARC Tool software and Lincoln Electric ArcLink communication interface, a stable well established ethernet based protocol.

Once the weld process is complete the robot cleans the torch in a Binzel BRS automatic welding station before returning the torch to the cradle. The robot then returns the completed component to the infeed pallet.

The system is parametrised and new products can be easily created from the 10.4” Touch Panel HMI without the need for robot programming skills.

The system can run small or large batch sizes for extended periods and frees up valuable welding resources to concentrate on more bespoke, less production orientated tasks.