Hey Gang - I know, I know, way too open ended of a question in the Subject line.
BUT I routinely program Fanuc, Epson, Denso, Nachi, and UR robots, and have experience with a couple more brands - the only ones of which offers real weld options Fanuc and Nachi. And while I like Fanuc, they are definitely not the cheapest game in town, especially when you start tacking on options (I've heard rumors their adaptive seam tracking is the cost of another robot all on its own.) And I can't seem to tell if Nachi doesn't have a lot of options for these, or if the information is just tricky to find.
Because I'm flexible and really have no fear of learning another robot at this point: what's everyone's go-to or system of choice for Arc Welding applications?
This is going to be a robot on a 7th axis, servicing two positioners - so I need 9 axes of motion total. I'm starting to think that adaptive seam tracking (by whatever acronym it may be known by a certain manufacturer) is going to be a requirement. I prefer Ethernet/IP, but can live with point IO if necessary.
Everyone has a model with the reach I need, and apart from that, it's just a "what am I most comfortable with" type of question - and I just don't care at this point.
If there's one that does the job and is significantly cheaper than the other manufacturers, I like that. If there's one that's expensive but has boatloads of cool options that make it a marvel of manufacturing, I might go that way.
Essentially, I've got too many options in front of me, and no real resources to pull information from, ignoring the manufacturer's sales people.
Would love whatever input you have - Thanks All!