OEM&Lieferant Ausgabe 2/2020

110 Production Innovative robot welding cell ensures maximum flexibility Solution for lot size 1 By Ralf Högel, Freelancer The renowned injectionmouldingmachine manufacturer Arburg provides proof that batch size 1 and full automation are not mutually exclusive with a pioneering robot welding system. On the contrary: Such challenges are solved efficiently and economically at the Lossburg headquarters. Founded as a small business in the idyllic Black Forest in 1923, Arburg achieved a spectacu- lar rise to become one of the world‘s leading machine manufacturers for plastics process- ing. The family-owned company currently has around 3,200 employees worldwide and still manufactures exclusively in Lossburg - now on an area of over 170,000 square meters and with an extremely high vertical range of man- ufacture of around 60 percent. The high-quality all-round injection moulding machines with hydraulic, hybrid, electric or vertical injection moulding technology are in great demand. An export quota of about 70 percent underlines the international esteem in which these machines are held. The auto- mation technology used to produce them is as innovative as the all-rounders themselves. A robot welding cell in a class of its own A prime example of the state-of-the-art pro- duction technology at Arburg can be found in sheet metal production. This is where the machine stands for the injection moulding ma- chines, which weigh tons, are produced in all conceivable designs. Wolfgang John, head of the non-cutting manufacturing department, sums up the special production engineering features: “Here we produce exclusively to cus- tomer order, which often means batch size 1 given the wide range and modularity of our injection moulding machines. For this we need a robot welding cell with maximum flexibility, where offline programming, maximum avail- ability and process reliability as well as first- class welding results are indispensable.” The welding specialists from YASKAWA Europe made the running here. And what they have installed in close cooperation with the Arburg managers in Lossburg is impressive: A high-tech welding cell, approximately 11 me- ters long and 4.5 meters wide, is situated in a very confined space. A MOTOMAN MA2010 six-axis robot is suspended from its X-Y-Z portal. Two special rotary positioners pick up the pre-worked, up to 5,500 millimeters long and three tons heavy machine stands using suitable jig carriers, which are then MAG gas shield welded by the welding robot in perfect trough position. Up to 100 meters of weld seam per component All machine stands are made of the sheet metal material S235, whereby the material thicknesses vary between five and eight millimetres depending on the model. A 500 ampere welding source by Lorch and a water- cooled welding torch in combination with the path-precise and dynamic MOTOMAN robot guarantee high welding speeds and first-class seam quality: “We draw welds of up to 100 meters per component. Here we depend on efficiency and reproducible quality. The welding seams not only have to meet visual requirements, but also have Images: © YASKAWA Impressive high-tech welding cell with welding robot suspended from the X-Y-Z portal and travelling welding fume extraction system. Millimetre precision: the MOTOMAN MA2010 during MAG gas shield welding of machine stands weighing tons.