The digitalization and automation degree of welding and cutting equipment is high

One of the biggest highlights of this welding exhibition is the high degree of digitalization and automation of welding and cutting equipment. Besides electrode arc welding and argon arc welding equipment, most of the welding and cutting equipment adopts NC numerical control systems and human-machine interfaces. Operators can freely set welding parameters or program welding procedures through the human-machine operation interface according to different welded parts. The welding program is stored in the NC control system, which can store up to hundreds of welding programs, achieving intelligent welding. At the same time, it is combined with a robot or mechanical arm system to realize all-round efficient and automated welding or cutting. Not only does it reduce the intensity of labor operations and greatly improve efficiency, but also it can obtain stable and reliable high-quality welds. Moreover, the welding process has good repeatability and reproducibility, and the consistency of welding quality is good.

All major manufacturers have tried every possible way to attract the attention of visitors. For example, ABB uses two robots to "work" collaboratively. Each robot's end arm "grabs" a display screen the size of a household TV, and then together they form a picture. A demonstration of two robots from FANUC working together to "weld" basketball strings. As is well known, there are many lines on the surface of a basketball, and the directions of these lines well represent the shapes of various complex welds at present, such as saddle-shaped and intersecting lines. These weld seams are very difficult to achieve if only one welding robot is used. However, if two robots work together, it is very easy to achieve. FANUC Company has solved these problems very well, and it can be seen from the content exhibited by its company that these problems have been solved quite beautifully.

The collaborative movement of robots is a major highlight of this year's Essen Exhibition. A traditional welding robot is equipped with only one turntable and has only eight degrees of freedom. Although it can weld complex welds on some complex-shaped workpieces, with the development of small-batch and diversified products, one robot with only one turntable can no longer meet the requirements. The coordinated movement of the two robots can generate a total of 12 degrees of freedom, which greatly increases its "flexibility" and makes it fully capable of handling various complex weld seams, as shown in Figure 1. The promotion and application of these technologies in the welding of large structural components such as vehicle bodies and turrets in the weapons industry can not only achieve high-speed and efficient welding, but also reduce manufacturing costs and significantly shorten the manufacturing cycle.

2. The power of welding equipment has become larger and the equipment has become smaller

To meet the welding production demands of some thick components, various high-power welding equipment has emerged, especially high-energy beam welding equipment such as laser and electron beam welding equipment. With the breakthrough of key technical bottlenecks in their equipment manufacturing, some high-power or ultra-high-power welding equipment has been produced. At present, the power of high-power lasers can reach over 10kW and can be used for the welding of combined gears and thick plates. The high-power electron beam welding machine of CVE in the UK can reach a power of over 100kW and can weld through 380mm thick stainless steel plates in one go. It can also be applied to electron beam free forming manufacturing technology and surface precision forming, providing a broader prospect for the application of high-energy beam processing technology in the manufacturing industry.

With the advancement of technology and to adapt to the welding of certain specific precision parts or facilitate fieldwork, welding equipment is constantly evolving towards miniaturization and micro-miniaturization, as shown in Figure 2. Another major feature of this exhibition is that the welding machines on display have shifted from the traditional "stupid, big, clumsy and coarse" to smaller and more convenient ones. The welding and cutting equipment is small in size, light in weight and portable, and can fully meet the welding needs of different environments and occasions. Typical small welding equipment includes the micro electron beam welding equipment produced by German FOCUS, with a power of 2kW and a vacuum chamber size of 200mm 2. The entire welding system is only the size of an office desk and can meet the welding requirements of various small-sized precision parts. The Shanghai Hugong series mini inverter arc welding machine has a minimum size of only 185mm×75mm×140mm and weighs only 1.8kg. It is portable and greatly meets the requirements of field operations. This is of great significance for the restoration of large-scale weaponry and equipment in service.