OEM&Lieferant Ausgabe 1/2020

100 Manufacturing Fully automatic welding of small batch sizes Robot welding cell with built-in flexibility By Ralf Högel, Freelancer MAHA, a world leader in workshop equipment supplies, has put into operation a robot welding system that sets new standards in terms of flexibility at its corporate headquarters in Haldenwang. Programmes for over 150 welded assemblies have been set up after a year of intense activity – with a continuing upward trend. MAHA is one of the global market leaders in workshop and vehicle testing equipment. The company, founded by Winfried Rauch in All- gäu in 1969, has quickly grown to become a global player with a worldwide workforce of over 1,200 as well as 150 agencies and 17 inter- national subsidiaries. At the Haldenwang site, about 750 employ- ees produce the full range of workshop equipment, from test stands and vehicle lifting platforms to various types of test- ing equipment for cars, commercial vehicles, motorbikes and special-purpose vehicles. Workshops and test organisations all over the world value the superior quality of the products that have an excellent reputation for durability and reliability. Small batch sizes from 10 to 100 Erich Schmölz, head of the robot welding de- partment at MAHA, sums up what this com- mitment to quality means for production: “On the robot system we must produce welding assemblies in small batch sizes and in abso- lutely reproducible quality. In the case of our truck lifting platforms, for example, that are offered with a maximum payload of up to 60 tonnes, human lives depend on the correct ex- ecution of welding seams. The requirements placed on welding results in quality testing are, depending on relevance, correspondingly stringent.” Premium quality accompanied by maximum flexibility – MAHA has achieved this “squar- ing of the circle” with a pathbreaking robot welding system conceived and implemented by the YASKAWA welding experts in close cooperation with the specialists at MAHA in a turn-key system now operating in Halden- wang. Robot welding system designed and built in a turnkey package “The complete cell is primarily composed of standard YASKAWA components, whereby the actual guarantors of flexibility are the six- axis MOTOMAN MA2010 high-speed welding robot with DX200 controller and five-axis R2C servo positioner, with two stations for par- allel welding and loading while processing,” stresses Roland Hermann, YASKAWA Sales Manager. Images: © YASKAWA The MOTOMAN MA2010 high-speed welding robot delivers perfect welding results. YASKAWA’s five-axis, 2-station positioner enables loading on the one side and welding on the other.