Product category:
Automatic and robotic welding systems
News Release from: Panasonic Industrial Europe | Subject: Integrated weld monitoring - robotic welding
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 03 January 2007
Integrated robotic weld monitoring
enhanced
Robotic arc welding monitoring system incorporates all data processing and programming for the power supply, wire feeder, and robot controller on the same CPU board.
The new Panasonic Tawers Fusion technology eliminates much of the information delay by incorporating all data processing and programming for the power supply, wire feeder, and robot controller on the same CPU board The system works at a greatly increased bus speed, with approximately 250% faster communication speed than traditional robot power source communication, this performance improvement eradicates the delay of information flow among the three primary components required in robot welding applications and provides a fully closed loop system between the welding machine, wire feeder and robot controller
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 21 Feb 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Faster processing increases welding speeds and productivity, lessens downtime, providing consistently optimum arc characteristics to provide virtually zero spatter, enhancing weld quality and integrated weld monitor systems.
As the Tawers system does not transfer information through conventional interface cables, it eliminates the potential for HF or noise introduction and damage to the interconnection communication cables related to the typically harsh manufacturing welding environment.
This technology provides significant advantages over its predecessors and one area which has been revolutionized is the field of weld monitoring.
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Conventional analogue weld control interface, inverter and 'open loop' wire feed systems create a certain level of 'scatter' and weld fluctuation during a given procedure, existing weld monitoring systems can often detect even modest variations above and below the selected min/max set values for selected parameters, these systems when used with analogue interface controls and traditional robot welding equipment require the widening of the min/max control set points to tolerate the greater variation in dynamic parameters and output 'scatter', however this action could minimizes the accuracy, reduce the sensitivity and effect the value of monitoring procedure.
With the Panasonic solution, dynamic weld parameters are held within very tight ranges because of the very rapid, self-correcting controls built into the robot/power supply/controller/wire feed system.
Therefore, Tawers permits a tighter range of permitted parameters and also the ability to monitor the process accurately while retaining the data for future analysis.
One level of the Tawers weld monitor control will record standard welding parameters, such as programme number, weld position, welding current, voltage, wire feed speed and travel speed etc.
It compares actual achieved levels during welding to the pre-selected high-low standards.
Should a deviation occur outside the pre-selected values, an alarm (visual and/or audible) can be activated, alerting the operator that something might be wrong.
The robot and welding process may also be shut down if production management requires.
The operator can easily select which required criteria is monitored for each individual weld within a given work piece, additional flexibility ensures that parameter control can be varied for each weld.
This selection is undertaken in the welding parameter software pages within the robot controller providing a truly seamless connection between the robot welding package and weld monitor function.
The robot controller stores the registered data in a log file which can be down loaded to a host PC with support / management software, this down load can be undertaken automatically with the use of a Ethernet connection.
The log file linking the welding process and programming points can be retained for later analysis for quality assurance or as historical evidence to actual production results.
A more advanced function within the monitor provides a high resolution sophisticated analysis of the welding wave form, documenting and recording the actual arc waveform within a 5 microsec scan time, allowing the monitoring of the actual output characteristics related to a specific area in a weld procedure.
This powerful diagnostic tool allows unprecedented analysis capabilities and allows the engineer to understand the true arc situation, making adjustments as needed to maximize performance.
This new advancement allows welding and quality engineers to develop and optimize the welding process prior to its implementation and to monitor a specific process or point in a work piece during continuous production.
This system does not require any additional hardware as it has been designed into the operating control systems of the robot controller, wire feeder and welding torch, thus providing the flexibility to monitor any Tawers Panasonic robot system without moving complex instrumentation to the monitoring location.
The real time weld monitor function is only one of many new productivity and quality enhancement functions within the Panasonic Tawers arc welding solution.
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