I have a KR 8 R1100 arc HW robot with a KRC5 controller. This robot has to weld tubes / poles with a Lorch mig welder. The poles are going to be rotated by a custom made manipulator (a 3 jaw chuck with a servo motor). The manipulator servo motor is controlled by a PLC. The robot basically stays still (only doing a bit of weaving) and the tubes / poles will rotate.
I want to weld the poles using arctech (so I can make use of the weaving patterns, and the seamtracking signal etc.) but I want the PLC to rotate the manipulator. This means I want the robot to weld while weaving and using the seamtracking signal, WITHOUT moving the TCP forward.
One way I thought of doing this would be to create an external axis, configure it as a simulated axis, program the welding motion to use that external axis (with a CIRC motion), and then send the setspeed of that external axis to my PLC over ethercat, which will then use that to controll the servomotor. As described in this post: Virtual axe
OR (even better & simpeler solution): Is there a way to use the ArcTech 'arcon' command without the robot actually moving? To let the robot stay in the same position, but still make the weaving pattern and use the seamtracking signal to correct it's position?
Looking for some feedback as to whether this could be a possible option, or if anyone has any other ideas how to accomplish this task.