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MET-CHEM chooses to cooperate with Valk Welding

MET-CHEM, a recognized Polish manufacturer of welded steel structures for the rail, machine and agricultural industries, has chosen to cooperate with Valk Welding.

MET-CHEM

With a workforce of more than 300 and the production of steel constructions for many demanding customers in the rail, machine, agricultural and construction industries, MET-CHEM in Plzen has taken the first step towards the robotization of its welding processes.

Last year, the decision was made to purchase a robotized station for welding excavator frame structures for one of the construction machinery manufacturers. It was decided to take this step in order to speed up the frame welding production process, but also to test the suitability of the robotized welding technology for use in the production of other parts of the railway and machinery industry. A versatile system based on the E-frame was chosen, which allows welding of multiple components, either on a single-axis manipulator or on a two-axis manipulator.

The front frame of the excavator is welded on one workstation and the rear frame is welded on a second workstation.

In addition, the robotized system is equipped with a third workstation for special applications.

The robotized workstation was installed at MET-CHEM in August 2020, and production of the front and rear frames started on it as early as September. Such a fast production start-up was possible thanks to the involvement of Valk Welding’s programmers, who programmed both components.

The jigs to hold the welded component were made by MET-CHEM based on their vast experience in building complex jigs for very demanding customers.

To facilitate the programming of the new components and the making of the fixtures to hold these components, the station is equipped with DTPS, an off-line virtual robot programming program.

With this program, new implementations can be worked on without stopping the robot. The programmer technologist designs the new tooling (checking the robot’s accessibility to the part to be welded) and programs the new part while sitting in the office, while the robot on the shop floor performs existing production.

The station is now running in two shifts, and productivity is so high that at this point they have started to perform process trials to weld other parts to fully occupy the robot.

www.met-chem.eu

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