Case Study: Automated Welding

Solving Worker Shortages in the Welding Industry

Melton Machine and Control Company understands the labor challenges facing our automated welding customers across their unique industries. With our custom machines and integration support, we help our customers overcome these obstacles to optimize their welding capabilities.

For one client – a large Midwestern manufacturer – our automated design for a TIG welding system solved a welding challenge that had been delaying their production line and product delivery for some time.

image of one of melton machine and control company's tig welding robots (robocell)

Introduction

Recently, a large manufacturer in the Midwest had a major welding problem. This manufacturer produces a large variety of metal parts and products from multiple plants across the region, many of which require welding in the production process.

As some of these welded parts will be installed in a contained high-pressure environment, the need for quality welding is high. Additionally, the complexities and innovation of the welded parts present a unique technical challenge, increasing the need for highly skilled, experienced welders to tackle the job.

Background

The welding system required for the precise welding of the manufacturer’s products is a Gas Tungsten Arc Welding system, more commonly known as TIG welding. TIG welding is preferred for complex welds because it offers better heat control. A welder can dictate exactly when and how much heat is introduced to the part during welding.

This process helps improve the quality of the weld, especially for thin-gauge material, while also resulting in less weld spatter. However, relying on TIG welding presents some challenges of its own as well.

Manual TIG welding is a highly sensitive process that is very difficult to master. A welder must simultaneously manage the torch stand-off distance, the speed of the torch as it moves along the joint, and maintain a constant angle of 10-15 degrees for the torch to work the surface. At the same time, the welder must add filler wire to the plasma arc, use a foot pedal to control the power supply's current output, and pull the filler wire back out enough that it remains inside the gas shield of the arc but doesn’t compromise the weld.

An inexperienced or unqualified welder could quickly turn the manual TIG welding process into a low-quality or even dangerous scenario.

The Problem

To meet their need for reliable, quality welds for their unique metal parts, this long-standing Midwest manufacturer needed expert welders in the region who have the skill set to weld the parts manually using a TIG welding system.

The problem is welders with this experience are in very short supply across the region. Welders who are qualified to work on such a production line can be extremely expensive due to their high demand. These two criteria became a consistent limiting factor for this company, which wants to grow its product lines and deliver quality welded parts.

Working understaffed leads to production delays and an overworked workforce, while competing to hire the few experienced welders near its manufacturing facilities threatens the company’s labor budgets.

The Solution

In search of a way to ensure quality, on-time welds without compromising their budget or timeline requirements, the manufacturer sought out new welding solutions. Their search for custom innovations led them to Melton.

As an expert in automated welding systems and custom machine designs, and integrations, we had a solution for the common industry roadblock facing the company. To address the highly specialized nature of this customer’s welding needs, we recommended a custom welding solution consisting of a Universal Robot (UR), a UR10e cobot integrated on a CoboWeldTIG cart/system.

This collaborative system included a Miller TIG power supply, a cold wire feed, shielding gas, and a water-cooled torch.

We also designed and installed special tooling to allow for repeatable part replacement. The system used the automated cobot to put the torch in exactly the same spot each time to ensure consistency across all parts of the production line. This tooling also compensated for small tolerance mismatch issues.

Advantages of the Custom Cobot System

The most obvious advantage of this system was that the customer’s team members received training on how to program the cobot and were operational within an hour. This is incredibly fast compared to a traditional robot, which may take two weeks of training and countless hours of routine hands-on experience to maintain proficiency.

The next big advantage was that the cobot system has great control over the taught torch distance, the torch angle, the weld speed, the exact wire feed speed, and the ability to push and pull the wire to properly create an exact weld “puddle” in the joint. With these variables automatically controlled, the weld power supply current did not need to be adjusted on the fly as with manual welding. All of this equated to a high-quality weld joint with very low errors.

Project Road Map: The Path to Success

Melton didn’t simply deliver an automated machine and hand over an instruction manual. We walked the manufacturer through detailed and collaborative design, engineering, building, implementation, and integration processes. Some important steps we took in this partnership include:

1. Free Assessment

Before we dove into action, we took the time to listen to the customer’s problem and how it was weaving a wide web of challenges throughout their production line. We completed a thorough assessment of their existing welding systems and determined that our custom automated welding solutions were the best option.

Automating welding fills the labor gap, saves labor costs, and gives the manufacturer greater control over the outcome of welding. With our free assessment, we’re able to gather all the information we need to start your custom project off on the right foot.

2. Understanding All Factors

The tolerances of the fundamental raw materials joined in welding must be considered carefully when designing a welding process for a cobot or a traditional robot.

For example, when a manual welding cell is used, a part tolerance issue can occur. This can prevent the welder from placing a weld bead large enough to join the parts across such a big gap.

While a welder could use a large hammer to beat the parts into the desired configuration and shrink the gap in the joint, this is impractical and can quickly go wrong.

With the automated system we created, abnormalities and tedious factors such as material tolerances were automatically factored into our process using superior tooling, fixturing, and cobot programming for a smooth integration.

Melton has more than 60 years of experience in the welding industry, so our integrator knew what to look out for and was able to help the customer get better control of tolerance issues and other potential roadblocks.

3. Adjustments & Improvements

As part of our solution, we walked the finished machine through an in-depth review to ensure it was effective, integrated properly, and met the customer’s expectations.

In this case, as a result of the check, the customer asked that multiple pieces be welded by their newly trained staff right there on the integrator’s floor to ensure proper usage.

We also checked that it could seamlessly switch over to a different model of a part or run more parts when needed to demonstrate the ease of changeover. All of these were key components for a successful implementation in the customer’s factory.

Results

Once the machine was fully integrated with the customer’s production line and their team was briefed and comfortable working with it, Melton worked with the customer to evaluate the positive impact that our automated welding system had on their workflow.

The most obvious benefit was that it solved initial concerns about skilled labor. It also addressed errors in welding by the workforce, which had previously caused a lot of rework and many added labor hours with each product, contributing to enormous returns on capital spent.

While automation eliminated the need for new hires, it didn’t replace existing welders. These team members working on the production were able to fully dedicate their time and expertise to areas of greater importance.

For example, the customer’s welders were able to build test parts for newly designed products, repair badly damaged parts, and teach machines how to weld existing parts more efficiently.

With the highly specialized TIG process automated, this manufacturer saw a dramatic increase in production and a decrease in scrap. The hours to produce a part dropped significantly, and the return on the custom machine was more than 300%.

300 %

ROI

Contact Melton Machine & Control Company Today

This manufacturer is very happy with the solution, the technology, and the training they received – a solution that still works for them today. Melton Machine & Control Company is available to help solve problems for your company.

With 60 years of experience and a fleet of dedicated engineers who understand the challenges affecting your welding processes, we are here to collaborate on a custom solution for your unique welding application. Contact us today for a free assessment.