Valk Welding: News

De Bruyn Metaalindustrie in Bergeijk, NL, is a supplier who wants to be a prominent player in its industry. They opted logically for Panasonic’s TAWERS welding robots when he decided to introduce robotic welding.

De Bruyn is the first supplier in the Netherlands to have implemented this system, after robotics integration specialist Valk Welding introduced the new robot at the Schweissen und Schneiden [Welding and Cutting] trade show last October.

With just 23 employees and a turnover of €6 million, De Bruyn Metaalindustrie is a relatively small business among all the large metal processing companies in Bergeijk. This size difference is also the company’s strength. Low overheads, flexible attitude and high manoeuvrability have won De Bruyn a valuable position as a primary supplier of complete semi-manufactured components. Many customers, including a coach and a cherry picker platform manufacturer, have their own production and assembly lines, and have De Bruyn supply complete component assemblies direct to those production lines. For this reason, the supplier deals with many repeat orders for which its production equipment has been perfectly configured. Wherever possible, this process is automated and a high-speed Finn-Power GHT laser with automated material handling is an example of just one of the pieces of equipment at the company.

 

No Robotic Welding Experience
Up until that point, De Bruyn had total control over its cutting, squaring, welding and coating (third-party) processes, allowing the company to meet tight deadlines. JIT production is not just a question of price and delivery time, but also of high and, in particular, consistent quality. This last point was an issue for De Bruyn's manual welding operations. The decision to introduce a welding robot was quickly made, despite a degree of scepticism among employees regarding programming and flexibility for small batch runs. De Bruyn consulted not only several suppliers, but also asked for advice from its independent supplier of welding equipment and accessories. Rob de Bruyn, “Among the various possibilities, the new Panasonic TAWERS system immediately stood out from the crowd. Panasonic is the only company who delivers all the components itself, ensuring a perfectly balanced system. In addition, Panasonic's new TAWERS welding robots incorporated power source and robotics control into one CPU. Our external advisor also saw this as a major benefit in terms of fast robot-welder communications and high quality welds."

 

Valk Welding Provides Optimal Support
Rob de Bruyn and his external advisor had looked at various systems. Rob de Bruyn, “Even at the demonstration at Valk Welding, the employees’ enthusiasm and knowledge was immediately apparent. Valk Welding builds several systems simultaneously in Alblasserdam, which in itself is quite impressive, but gave us all the time we needed for a thorough demonstration. We also asked the specialist several critical questions. It became very clear to us that this company, with all its knowledge and experience, could help us meet our goals.

Standard Workcells with Dual Beds
About half of the products to be robotically welded are no larger than 10 x 10cm and either 3, 6, 10 or occasionally 20mm thick. An H-frame design with two clamping beds on which 40 such products can be clamped offered the most promising solution. Valk Welding produced this setup in a standard workcell with a distance of 2.5m between the manipulators where the TAWERS TA-1400 robot was positioned. De Bruyn built a safety partition around the workcell themselves and with the support of Valk Welding constructed the clamping system.

 
Programming
Given the repetitive nature of the work and the fact that most products are closely related to one another, Valk Welding did not view the need for off-line programming as an essential prerequisite. Valk Welding’s Technical Advisor, Bas van Haagen, “De Bruyn’s staff were initially sceptical about programming. They did not want it to cost too much time or to be too complicated. Off-line programming is the perfect solution, although not necessarily essential. Simple products can be programmed using a teach pendant, especially when you use the copy function.” Rob de Bruyn and another member of staff followed the training course first and this was sufficient to continue the process internally. Rob de Bruyn, “It is important that you can communicate on the same level on the work floor. I need to have sufficient programming knowledge myself in order to participate in the thought process. Programming with a teach pendant and switching over to another product was no problem at all. This is possible because the robot commences operation immediately after swapping out the template and choosing the correct program.”

Ultra Low Spatter Welding with TAWERS Robots
The Panasonic TAWERS welding robot is fitted with several digital innovations, which are only possible thanks to its high speed data communications system. These innovations have resulted in improved welding quality. The most notable things about this system are virtually no spatter or droplet formation at the start and end of the welding seam. Rob de Bruyn, “The biggest benefit is that the products can be delivered direct to the sprayer without any finishing. In addition, the speed (180m/min) at which the robot moves from point to point is stunningly fast. At the moment, that is a little bit too much for us to handle,  so we are currently working at half speed until we have the robotic welding process down to a fine art.”

Just-In-Time
The advantage of JIT supply is that volumes and types of products as well as delivery dates have all been predetermined. Rob de Bruyn, “Production can be perfectly planned with as few stoppages as possible. The downside is that we have to provide delivery guarantees to the customer. Therefore, we always build in a small buffer in the event of a stoppage due to failure. So, we produce in excess and we keep the extra products in stock instead of the customer. Those costs have to be calculated too. The current material shortage is proving to be a greater problem. The days of “order today, here tomorrow” are long gone. This has lead to us stockpiling consignments of sheet metal wherever and whenever we find any available. Recently we purchased an additional 100 tons as a buffer, on top of the daily stock of 150 tons of sheet metal.”

Continued Growth Through Automation
De Bruyn Metaalindustrie has succeeded in maintaining its prominent position in the market. Eight years ago, when the industry norm for laser cutting equipment was 2.5kW/1.5 x 3, the company invested in a 4kW/4 x 6 laser, typical of this company's strategy. In 2003, this was supplemented with a high speed Finn-Power GHT 4kW machine. The aim is to consolidate laser cutting, squaring and welding into one production line. The investment in the new welding robot as brought that goal one step closer. De Bruyn foresees that growth will continue in the near future and is already planning the next round of investments. One thing is certain; the company owner does not want to hire any new staff. The output per employee will have to be increased and that can only be achieved by automation. De Bruyn does not exclude the possibility of further robots.

De Bruyn Metaalindustrie B.V., Tel. +31 (0)497 575572
Valk Welding B.V., Tel. +31 (0)78 691 7011