Warsco welds chassis and roofs on a 30 m track with hanging robotPrint this page
Warsco-Units in Zutendaal (B) has invested over 1 million Euro in a third production line with welding robot. On a 30 m track, the robot daily welds chassis and roofs for movable units. Before, these were welded by hand.
All treatments for the units are carried out by Wasco itself. Production analysis shows that welding is one of the most frequent treatments. About 70% of the welding work consists of chassis and roofs. For a production of four units per day, four welders are required. By using a welding robot, the daily production can be increased to six chassis and six roofs per operator. Therefore, the employment of a welding robot was obvious. However, Warsco had no experience with production automation, and a welding robot requires a higher accuracy.
As a first step, an automated saw was taken into use to present cylinder formed profiles with constant size to the welding robot.
Director Mark Warson of Warsco-Units: ''Maintaining flexibility was one of the most important conditions we had for the development of the automation concept. Indeed, we must be able to weld all dimensions between 3 m x 2.4 m and 12 m x 4 m, without too complicated reconstructions.''
Together with Valk Welding, Demmeler developed a table with a total length of 12 m, that can be adjusted in steps of 100 mm, within 10 min. Clamping is partially done pneumatically. In addition, the hanging welding robot can be programmed very rapidly. Valk Welding disposes of 40 sub-programmes within the programming system DTPS in a database, with always a variant of length and width. So, Warsco can compose 480 different programmes for as many types without having to programme each type separately. In order to avoid any conflicts between the robot and the welding table with the moulds, the welding robot first carries out an 'air programme' before welding each chassis part.
Mark Warson: ''Since the installation, I see that many of our collaborators are very enthusiastic. The robot can easily reach all positions, where before our welders had to squirm to be able to weld the welding spots in the middle of a chassis. One of the installation's strong points, is that the welding robot can be programmed during production. Furthermore, the welders are no longer with their face in the welding vapours. These are centrally exhausted above the welding table and filtered via a return system.''
Warsco Units was able to largely expand the production capacity with this robot, and can now meet the increasing market demand. Warsco Units is specialised in the production, transport and installation of provisional movable units, from work shed in construction to complete provisional office buildings. At the moment, Warsco produces over 1000 units per year, an increasing part of which is intended for rent.
(Source: various professional magazines - November 2002)