Stopped during welding

    I am currently working with a welding robot and haven't yet setup the cell walls around the robot work area. When I setup the cell I know that if someone enters the cell when the robot is running the robot must stop but I was wondering if someone was to enter the cell when a welding program was running thus stopping the program how would I continue the program once it is safe again. I was thinking that I would have to forward the program to the next weld and go from there filling in the incomplete weld either by creating a short program or by using a stick welder. Is there an easier solution to continue the weld program that I am missing?

    If you're using RW Arc / ArcWare it has a certain level of error recovery and it would allow you to back up X amount of millimeters before re-igniting the arc and continue to weld along the path - if that's what your customer wants. Some customers doesn't like that due to the potential for weld faults (in the weld itself, not robot errors) so what you end up doing always depends on what they want.


    If they like to you could just skip that weld too... requires quite a bit of error handling (or late RW5/6 have some of that built in).

    As above, you stand a good chance of a poor weld if you try to restart, I did MIG/MAG welding robots for many years and found the best solution was to skip to the next weld and rectify post process with a human to assess whether the weld needs grinding out before re-welding.

    The "best" solution have nothing to do with the brand of robots or powersource, it's strictly part and process related.


    Skipping to the next weld is always easier for the robot programmer since they don't have to deal with the restart. :zwink:


    Personally I can say that out of the 100+ jobs that I've done over the years the majority of them have restarts rather than skipping welds, even on parts that require full penetration in the root layer (multi-layer welds) and with welds subject to random x-ray testing, so again, it is really up to the customers weld specifications / requirements, the process and the part itself.


    Another alternative is to move forward rather than backwards (if you have longer welds), in that case you can move forward 20-30mm, restart the weld, finish it and stop for the operator to come in and repair the missing portion.


    You can also make checks to see that if you're within X mm of the end of your weld you skip it (since you won't be able to generate enough heat to overcome the weld fault issue), and if you're far enough away you continue...


    There's a million ways to solve the issue, just have to figure out whats best for that particular weld :hmmm:

    Quote from RogerSut


    Is your solution the best thing to do regardless of the welding robot brand and model, RoboWeld?


    It's nothing to do with brands/models, it's the process, I am used to high volume production welding and found the best option was to skip the weld via the operator HMI then send the part for post process rectification.

    Quote from RoboWeld


    I am used to high volume production welding and found the best option was to skip the weld via the operator HMI then send the part for post process rectification.


    That's a very good point as well, in high volume / speed production you don't want to stall it just to have the operator repair a weld and in those instances it is (as RoboWeld points out) much better to get the part out and send it to a repair station.
    Besides, many times in those scenarios the operators are not trained welders but merely button pushers and part load/unload.

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