TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 305/1986
By R W Graham and J Weston
Background
Robot development and applications are briefly outlined. Several features of the second generation robots, such as the increased controller capacity and sensing capabilities, e.g. tactile sensor for joint location and arc parameter joint tracking sensors, are described. Practical welding experience with typical current generation machines has been gained using Komatsu (NEI Thompson Welding Systems, Tomkat) and OTC (Norman Butters and Co.) robots. The operation of the arc parameter joint tracking sensors (arc sensors) was assessed by producing fillet welds in 12mm thick C-Mn steel plate by MIG welding. The quality of multipass MIG butt welds produced by the Komatsu robot in 16 and 25mm C-Mn steel plate was also studied. In this case the first pass was tracked using arc sensing and the subsequent passes built upon this reference.