The Global Industrie 2023* show has just ended and cobotics technologies were particularly well represented this year. As in 2022, you were able to discover the F/i cobot welding cobot developed by Fronius and FTS Welding, equipment capable of reproducing the movement of the welder and which places the welder’s know-how at the heart of the symbiosis between man and machine! Let’s find out why the cobot is the ideal companion for the 4.0 welder.
In this other article dedicated to new welding practices, Christophe Jouve, robotics manager at Fronius France, explained to us the advantages of cobotics and new generator technologies for production and how they could help attract new employees. We will see here why collaborative robotics should be seen as an aid tool and not a replacement, the place of cobots being in the box, alongside the welder-robotician.
Welder and cobot: complementary skills for small series
In the opinion of Christophe Jouve, if cobotics can considerably improve the working conditions of welders, on the other hand cobots will never replace welders, whose know-how is essential, especially when it comes to qualifying welding parameters.
“When we are in cobotics, we always need the know-how of the welder, perhaps even more so than in robotics, because the projects associating welding and robotics concern the production of large series of parts.
These are therefore big projects, with test phases and during which the welders can rely on a team of engineers. As cobotics essentially concerns small series, it is therefore mainly intended for companies of the SME type which do not have such an infrastructure. For these companies, structural calculations and tests are not commonplace: it is the welder who decides how to work, often from a plan, respecting the rules of the trade. »
The F/i cobot example: equipment capable of recreating the welder’s gesture!
For a cobotic solution to be effective, it must thus make it possible to reproduce the precision, the repeatability and the dexterity of the welder. This is what Fronius offers with its robotic welding solution called F/i cobot, created in association with FTS Welding.
The main strength of this solution is the Imite® function which, as its name suggests, makes it possible to imitate the gesture of the welder and whose operation could not be simpler.
The operator first begins by welding a first part, using the torch attached to the cobot, which allows the cobot to record the movements carried out. Once this first weld has been made, the cobot is thus able to reproduce the welder’s gesture on the following parts!
According to Christophe Jouve, welding by learning is an effective solution, because it relies on the know-how of the welder: “When a welder welds, he never asks himself if he is moving at exactly 25 cm/min or if he is 15 or 17 mm from the part. He simply welds, checking that the weld corresponds to what is required. As in painting, welding is an area that requires a certain know-how and welding steel, aluminum or stainless steel is not the same thing. »
In addition, the F/i cobot has a huge advantage for the operator: he does not need to have any programming knowledge, which makes this technology accessible to any welder, while leaving him the possibility of focus on parts with high added value, the series being produced by the cobot which becomes a real production assistant.
Cobotics and metal additive manufacturing: technologies that are becoming industrialized
Finally, Christophe Jouve also sees an analogy between cobotics and metal additive manufacturing, a niche which was, a few years ago, at the laboratory stage and which, little by little, is developing as it enters industry.
“Additive manufacturing fills in part of what the foundry did before, but with more flexibility. On the other hand, cobotics comes to fill a range of small and medium series which was not profitable in robotics and mobilized a lot of personnel for manual operations. Fronius regularly receives requests for additive manufacturing and cobotics projects. »
* global industry