Robotic Welding Equipment & Processes

Robotic welding is widely praised for its many advantages over manual welding. In addition to automating the welding process to increase accuracy and sustained quality, robotic welding often allows for higher throughput, productivity, and lower operating costs. Due to the many benefits that robotic welding provides, its technology has advanced substantially to meet specialised demand over the past few decades.  

For first time owners of welding robots, choosing the right welding and process equipment can be challenging, given the range of options available. Not only are there several types of welding processes, each with their own strengths, but also key pieces of equipment to complete your operation, from consumables and metal filler to wire feeding, contact tips and software.

While it would be unreasonable to expect a first-time client to be able to provide perfect specifications for their needs without the help of industrial robotic experts, it can still be beneficial to understand the basics.

Types of Welding Robots Processes 

Welding manually demands precision and requires a high level of education and skill. However, the number of professional welders available falls far below the needs of the industry.

Robots not only pick up the sack by filling in the skill shortages, but they automate the process, ensuring higher accuracy, less waste and faster operation. Industrial robot technology is adaptable to many different types of welding, include the 7 most common:

Arc welding

An electric arc generates extreme heat which melts the metal, allowing molten metal parts to join. It is ideal for large volume projects.

Resistance welding

A current of electricity passes between two metal bases and creates a pool of molten metal. Ideal for heat-treating or lower cost operations

Spot welding

Useful for materials that resist electrical currents, robots use a variation of resistance welding to connect a pair of fine metal sheets in one place.

TIG welding

When precision is of utmost importance, TIG welding delivers a high-quality process whereby an arc is formed between a non-consumable tungsten electrode and the metal part.

MIG welding

A fast and straightforward welding method using a high level of deposition. A wire moves toward the heated tip, which melts the wire and allows a substantial amount of molten metal to drip onto the base.

Laser Welding

Generating a high-powered beam via a fiber optic cable and through a robotic cutting head to weld two pieces together. Optimal for hard-to-reach locations and high accuracy operations in the medical or automotive industry.

Plasma Welding

Uses ionised gas that’s passed through a copper nozzle to create high temperatures. This type of welding is used when flexibility is required as temperatures and velocity can be adjusted easily

Communication & Intelligence

Industrial robots are more than the sum of their parts. One of the most beneficial characteristics of industrial robotic processes is the ability to create a network that communicates and works in sync, acting as if it were all one singular device.

There are many crucial aspects of a robotic welding system, like robot controllers for motion and tooling, system controllers for part movement, environmental communication, and human-machine interface. Depending on what type of information is required, specialists will suggest the right system to acquire the necessary data.

Workcell Features

A work cell is a logistical arrangement of resources in a manufacturing space to optimise speed, lower costs and improve quality. In other words, a complete system. The parts that need welding and the involvement of humans on the production line will play a large role in determining what type of workcell features you need.

For example, they could be tables, turntables, positioners, fixtures, safety environments and shields. For very large parts, you will need considerable positioning and fixturing, while smaller parts that the robot can reach easily will need fewer workcell features.