Is collaborative welding robots a good business?-EEWORLD

Collect

Written by Hoshea

An industry insider told Gaogong Robot that after much trial and error, collaborative robots have finally made their way into industry and will continue to seize the market share of industrial robots. This trend is obvious.

This is actually true. One notable manifestation is that collaborative robot manufacturers are continuing to focus on welding technology. On October 18, JEKA Robotics officially released a welding process package & one-stop solution; on October 14, SIASUN released a new generation of Duco® collaborative robots that inherited the welding process package - GCR flagship series & GCR ZII series; on July 25, YUEJING Robotics launched a welding process package that supports rapid deployment...

According to data from Gaogong Robot Industry Research Institute (GGII), the sales volume of arc welding robots in the Chinese market in 2021 was 41,600 units, a year-on-year increase of 29.60%. It is estimated that by 2026, the overall sales volume of welding robots in the Chinese market may approach the 100,000 mark. It is not difficult to see that collaborative robot manufacturers are trying to seize the huge market of welding technology.

Data source: Gaogong Robot Industry Research Institute ( GGII )

But is the use of collaborative robots in welding really a good business? In this article, Gaogong Robotics interviewed a number of collaborative robot industry practitioners to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of collaborative robots in welding and their application prospects, and jointly seek solutions to the above issues.

There are advantages, but there are also disadvantages

From the current application distribution areas of industrial robots, they are mainly concentrated in welding, spraying, assembly, packaging, palletizing, polishing and grinding, among which welding and palletizing are the two largest areas. Relevant data show that the current usage of welding robots in the world's industrial robots is about 50%.

So, what are the advantages of collaborative robots in welding processes?

Aobo said that for the welding industry, the application and deployment cost of traditional industrial robots is high, the learning cost of welders is high, and the welding quality has high requirements on the personal ability of welders. Traditional industrial robots are difficult to meet the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. With the development of vision, sensors, AI and other technologies, collaborative robots can be widely used in small batches, multi-variety customized flexible production line applications. At the same time, they are cheaper, easier to integrate, and have a fast return on investment. Collaborative robots can fill the gaps in traditional industrial robot services, and this is also true in welding scenarios.

In the opinion of relevant persons in charge of SIASUN, the application of collaborative robots in welding scenarios has four major advantages:

First, compared with traditional welding robots, collaborative robots are easier to use . Through drag-and-drop teaching, users can quickly and conveniently teach welding trajectories, greatly improving implementation efficiency.

Second, because collaborative robots have an extremely low load-to-weight ratio, are lightweight, and are highly flexible , they can be easily installed and deployed, and can easily replace the work that can only be done by professional welders. At the same time, due to their low weight ratio, collaborative robots can also be installed on mobile platforms to achieve fast welding of small parts and small batches;

Third, compared with traditional welding robots, collaborative robots have a higher degree of interface openness and are easier to integrate with external ecological products and conduct secondary development, realizing functions such as welding laser positioning, visual guidance, automatic weld tracking, complex trajectory welding, and welding quality inspection, meeting the needs of some customers for intelligent welding;

Finally, the overall design of collaborative robots is relatively compact , and their own operating energy consumption is much lower than that of traditional robots, so users have lower vertical and horizontal costs in actual applications.

Elite Robotics said: "The advantages of collaborative robots in welding scenarios are first of all the inherent advantages of convenient deployment, quick teaching, simple programming, rich interfaces, light body, simple programming, etc. In addition, collaborative robots can achieve free dragging and even dragging with certain degrees of freedom (locked axis dragging) by cooperating with force control based on current models or end force sensors, effectively reducing the difficulty of teaching. Therefore, collaborative robots have natural advantages for some single-station welding stations, targeting the welding needs of small parts, multiple SKUs, and small batches ."

In the view of Zheng Panhong, marketing director of Han's Robotics , compared with traditional welding robots, in addition to the natural advantages of collaborative robots such as small footprint, flexibility, safety, simple operation, and high cost performance, the other advantage is the applicability of collaborative robots to enterprises. Collaborative robots can work alone and collaborate with humans, which is very suitable for the flexible welding needs of some small and medium-sized enterprises.

Xie Junjie, Product Director of Yuejiang Robotics, also believes that the biggest advantage of collaborative robots in welding processes comes from their natural characteristics such as lightweight and easy deployment. For example, drag-and-drop teaching. Traditional welding robots often need to be positioned one point at a time through a teach pendant, while collaborative robots can be directly dragged, which greatly improves the teaching efficiency. Even under complex welding trajectory requirements, collaborative robots are simpler and faster to program. When facing multi-variety small-batch welding production, the efficiency is also greatly improved compared to traditional welding robots.

Tang Rongjun, an industry expert at JEKA Robotics , said that in fact, welding has a wide range of application scenarios, from rail transit, oil pipelines, liquefied natural gas storage tanks, nuclear power equipment, to building steel structures, which all require a lot of welding. However, the welding objects in these industries are large workpieces, and the production model is different from the batch manufacturing model of the automotive industry, making it difficult to achieve welding through traditional industrial robots.

It is not difficult to see that in the view of a number of collaborative robot manufacturers, the advantages of collaborative robots used in welding processes are mostly centered around the natural advantages of collaborative robots.

However, Richeal (pseudonym), a person in charge of a welding robot company, told Gaogong Robot that it is still impractical for collaborative robots to be deployed in large quantities in welding scenarios . In Richeal's opinion, the speed of collaboration is slower than that of industrial robots, and in the general mass manufacturing application environment, the efficiency is completely incomparable to that of industrial robots. At the same time, in the existing welding environment, most robots require a large operating radius and multifunctional arc welding software, which collaborative robots cannot currently meet.

Regarding the welding efficiency of collaborative robots, Yuejiang Robot Product Director Jie Junjie said that in terms of overall operating efficiency, collaborative robots are indeed slightly slower than traditional industrial robots, but in terms of pure welding efficiency, collaborative robots are almost the same as traditional industrial robots . The difference between the two lies mainly in the idle time. The startup speed of traditional industrial robots is faster than that of collaborative robots that focus on safety. Therefore, if the idle time accounts for a large proportion in a certain welding scene, the efficiency will be significantly different.

Xie Junjie further said that the process package is indeed one of the gaps between collaborative robots and traditional industrial robots. The welding process package of industrial robots has been developed for decades, and it has been relatively complete in terms of the cooperation of upstream and downstream manufacturers, the cooperation of welding machines, and welding technology. However, the time for collaborative robot manufacturers to launch welding process packages is relatively short, and there are relatively certain deficiencies in details and the supporting of upstream and downstream welding. However, as collaborative robots continue to deepen their presence in welding scenarios, the gap will only get smaller and smaller under feedback.

Relevant person in charge of Zhongke Xinsong believes that at present, the limitations of collaborative robots used in welding scenarios are mainly in arm span and process packages. In terms of arm span, the collaborative robot products on the market are limited in arm span design because they are positioned as replacements for labor in the early stage. For the welding of larger single parts, it is necessary to add external transplanting mechanisms to expand their working space, which will increase costs and limit the expansion of their welding applications. In terms of process packages, most collaborative robots on the market are in the stage of product technology accumulation and continuous function improvement, and do not have their own welding process packages. Without a welding process package, welding work is equivalent to drilling wood to make fire, which is inefficient and limits the use of collaborative robots in the field of welding machines.

Break the limitations of collaborative robots and embrace the blue ocean of welding

At present, the use of collaborative robots in welding processes is still in the early stages of development, and there is no obvious gap between collaborative robot companies in welding scenarios. How to break the limitations of collaborative robots and embrace the blue ocean of welding?

Each family has its own calculations.

Sino-Tech SIASUN chose to optimize the whole process from hardware to process package . In view of the shortcoming of arm span, Sino-Tech SIASUN's multi-cooperative robot has an arm span range of 600mm to 2 meters, which greatly expands the adaptability of scenarios and can be compatible with welding operations from small to large parts, providing more possibilities for the expansion of collaborative robots in the field of welding. In terms of welding process packages, multi-cooperative robots have developed welding process packages through the accumulation of many welding applications, supporting various pendulum welding methods such as triangle, trapezoid, sine, spiral, and figure 8, and supporting mainstream welding machines such as Magmet, meeting customers' welding needs in various scenarios. At the same time, they can be quickly deployed, and the adaptability of welding scenarios is effectively improved.

In AUBO's view, the future of collaborative welding robots should be "safe, convenient, intelligent and modular". Based on the lightweight welding workbench, AUBO perfectly integrates with the AUBO collaborative robot to create a movable welding workbench, which gets rid of the traditional fixed and bulky welding mode. It can be dragged and moved, and is suitable for indoor and outdoor welding work in various environments. The repeat positioning accuracy of the AUBO collaborative robot can reach ±0.02mm, making the arc more stable and softer, the molten pool calmer, and the weld more perfect.

Elite Robotics chose to make breakthroughs in the welding segment. Elite Robotics said that Elite has taken the lead in making breakthroughs in thin plate welding (laser welding), and gas shielded welding also has mature application cases. However, welding, as a basic process, must have many requirements. The consistency of the product and the specifications of the product will determine the welding requirements. For example, weld tracking and multiple multi-pass thick plate welding are all areas where collaborative robots are not yet perfect and need to be developed. In addition, in the past, collaborative robots were mostly driven and controlled in an integrated controller for convenience, which made it impossible to meet the real-time linkage requirements of welding (multi-axis expansion). The application of collaborative robots in welding can currently solve the programming problems caused by multiple varieties, and will inevitably solve some customer pain points. However, if it is to become an indispensable product in the welding process, it must promote product development from breakthroughs in the welding segment. "

Han's Robotics may have chosen to identify the core pain points of collaborative robots in welding scenarios. At the Chicago Machine Tool Show, Han's Robotics launched a new automated welding solution, which uses Han's robots in combination with welding systems, welding gun systems, etc., and gives full play to the core advantages of Han's collaborative robots, such as simple operation (only simple programming is required to use, saving time and cost), high safety (the robot will lock directly and will not fall when encountering sudden power outages or emergency stops during operation), so that welders can complete the operation without the help of others, while improving the welding process and effectively improving welding production efficiency.

Zheng Panhong, Marketing Director of Han's Robotics, said: "Many limitations are inherent in collaborative robots and cannot be changed. We can only find scenarios suitable for collaborative robot welding and find scenarios where collaborative robots are a must. The welding market is very large, and there are undoubtedly enough scenarios suitable for collaborative robots. "