Robotiq, in partnership with Yaskawa Motoman, has released Kinetiq Teaching, a new technology designed to quickly and easily task welding robots without requiring in-depth programming knowledge.
"Kinetiq Teaching enables job shops to easily implement robotic welding with simplified teaching and reduced set-up times by allowing operators to guide the robot by hand to desired weld positions," said a company spokesperson. "An icon-based menu is presented on the teach pendant's color touch screen to allow the operator to define the task. Programming time is greatly reduced with the more intuitive manual positioning. The graphic user interface allows robot programming to be performed with minimal training."
With Kinetiq Teaching, the welder moves the robotic welding tip next to a workpiece by physically hand-guiding the robot. Once the welding point is reached, the welder determines the welding parameters through a touch screen interface.
After all the points are recorded, the welder can play back the programmed trajectory and modify it on the fly. By doing so, experienced welders will be able to set welding jobs and oversee the productivity of more than one robotic welder at a time, or train less skilled operators to program the welding robot and act as a technical adviser and a quality assurance resource.
"Kinetiq Teaching has been designed to leverage the knowledge of welders," said Samuel Bouchard, President of Robotiq. "It enables them to move the robot welder with their hands and intuitively program welding paths by using a dedicated user-friendly teach pendant interface. No in-depth programming knowledge is required."
"Major challenges of robotic welding in manufacturing are related to the shortage of available welders and the difficulty of achieving a compelling ROI for smaller companies," said Chris Anderson, Welding Product Marketing Manager at Yaskawa Motoman. "Kinetiq Teaching changes the equation; manufacturing companies will be able to automate welding jobs by using only their in-house welding expertise. It opens the door to robotic welding at small and medium manufacturing facilities with high-mix and low-volume welding."
To watch a video of this application, visit robotiq.com/welding.
For more information contact:
Robotiq
966, chemin Olivier, Suite 325
St-Nicolas, Qc, G7A 2N1, Canada
888-ROBOTIQ (762-6847)
www.robotiq.com
Yaskawa America, Inc.
Motoman Robotics Division
100 Automation Way
Miamisburg, OH 45342
937-847-6200
www.motoman.com