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© KUKA Robot Automation (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd cymun, Version 4 2007.01.26

KUKA Welding Robot – Making More Money for You 1. Reduce the downtime due to

collisions. It is not uncommon that many collisions happen between the welding robot and the jig, workpiece, and/or positioner everyday in the robotic welding cell. These can be due to operator’s carelessness, workpiece dimension consistency, welding consumables quality, and wear and tear of welding wire liner. It takes a long time to recalibrate the robot without the correct technology.

KUKA eliminates the painstaking and tedious work of robot zero-point calibration (mastering) by providing the electronic calibration method. The operator only has to plug in an electronic probe into the robot calibration hole located near to each axis, use the teach pendant to move the robot slightly, and the robot control system will guide the operator to recover the zero-position instantly.

2. Reduce the programming time

and operator’s mistake. Programming the welding of a workpiece has always been a time-consuming and stressing job. Conventionally, the operator has to move the eyes between the workpiece and the teach pendant, the fingers have to struggle with the joystick and the keys of the teach pendant in order to move one axis by one axis to achieve the optimum torch orientation and welding path.

KUKA comes to the rescue by providing a 6D dimensional mouse. This adopted



technology from the European Space Research Laboratory enables the operator to move all the 6 axis of the robot with one hand, making the robot as the extended arm of the operator. This has dramatically reduced the programming time of a new workpiece, enables the operator to focus 100% on the workpiece, and at the same time reduced the mental stress of the operator which indirectly reduces his or her mistakes.

3. Minimize the damage if collision does

happen. In order to ensure the continuous operation of the robotic welding station, it is imperative that the damages to the major equipment should be minimized when collisions happen between the welding robot and the jig, workpiece, and/or positioner.

KUKA offers the best in the industry by providing anti-collision on the robot body itself also. This also indirectly reduces the possible damages to peripheries. The current required to drive the servo motor on each axis of the robot under normal working condition are monitored in real time. If at anytime, any combination of these currents exceeds the normal level, the robot control system will immediately stop the robot because this signifies the corresponding servo motors are blocked, or collision has happened. The sensitivity of the anti-collision can be set by adjusting the activation of the control system according to the amount of current above the normal level.

4. Rugged and reliable robot position feedback. In the real production environment, other than the vibrations due to collision, the position feedback devices on the robot have to also withstand the heat and also the electromagnetic interference from the welding process. Drawing from long experience in the automotive industry, KUKA has changed from encoder to resolver technology to ensure a rugged and reliable passion feedback.

5. Improved Operator Productivity and Reduced

Operation Mistake by Continuous and

Automatic Monitoring of Operator Actions on

the Robotic System.



It is a know fact all operator needs supervision in order to improve their productivity. KUKA robots have automated this task by offering an automatic recording of all operator actions on the robotic system. It is just some flips of screen in order to see what the operator has done onto the robot and what the operating conditions were.

6. Minimize the damage to the welding hose

assemblies. It is very often that the robot arm has to be programmed in awkward positions so that the welding torch can reach certain welding seams in the optimum orientation. This normally happens when the reach or working range of the robot is not sufficient. With these robot positions, the hose assemblies are strangled around the robot body. During normal operation and the robot is moving at high speed, the rubbing between the hose assemblies and the robot body will cause rampant and unpredictable damages to the hose assemblies. This in turns cause major down times and hence lost in productivity, not mentioning the high cost of replacing those cables and hose assemblies.

To overcome the above problems, KUKA has offered the following solutions:

Increase the reach of the robot: Within the 6 kg class of robot, KUKA offers the longest reach of 1.61 m.

Extensible reach: KUKA also is the only robot manufacturer who offers the possibility of arm extension for the KR 16 model. This is to protect the customer’s investment and minimize their investment in case the requirement for a longer reach is inevitable. KR 16’s reach can be extended from 1.61 to 1.91 m (KR 16L6).

Standard ceiling mounting: The standard KUKA welding robot KR16 is also the only robot which can be ceiling-mounted without any modification to axis 1.



Ceiling-mounting robot offers the biggest working envelope (3.2 m for the KR 16 model, or 3.82 m for the KR 16 L6 model) and also the best position to avoid entangling of cables and hoses.

370o working envelope on axis 1：The standard KUKA

KR 16 robot is also the only welding robot in the industry which offers a 370o working envelope on axis 1. Other than providing more possibilities of robot orientation to avoid entanglement of hose assemblies, this working envelope allows many more jigs to be positioned around the robot, hence one robot is able to weld more products without the needs of changing jig for different product. This also constitutes an increase in productivity.

Provisions of fixation points for hose assemblies: KUKA robot is also the only robot with many fixation points on its body for the fixing of hose assemblies or other peripheries directly onto the robot body so as to avoid entanglement of hose assemblies. For the 6 kg payload robot, it is possible to mount an additional 10 kg of load on its 3rd axis and additional 20 kg on its 1st axis.



KUKA ROBOT HAS THE LONGEST ARM REACH IN IT’S CLASS

( 6 KG PAYLOAD )

VR / TA Series

IRB 1410

KUKA

KR 6 Arc

1374mm

1440mm

1611mm

KUKA

KR 16



7. Minimize new part programming time. Whenever a new part is to be welded by the robot, all the welding seams have to be programmed or teach-in. The more complex the workpiece, the longer the time required. Conventionally, these works are done at the actual robotic cell. When these activities are carried out, the robot is not actually welding, hence there is a lost of arc-on time and productivity.

In order to achieve the highest arc-on time possible, KUKA is able to provide a highly user-friendly offline programming tool (Optional). This tool is called KUKA Sim Pro. The whole welding program can be made offline beforehand with this tool and the robot can carry on with its welding task on its existing parts. The cycle time can also be estimated with this tool. The programming can be carried out in the comfortable office environment. Other than enhancing the concentration of the programmer and resulting in a better program, this tool also eliminates the accidents and lost in productivity which could happen if programming is done at the actual robot cell. Not forgetting also that the robot is still running production of the old parts while the programming of the new part is being carried out. During the time to produce the new part, the program just need to be downloaded to the robot controller. After making some fine adjustment, the new parts can be produced with the much shorter set-up time. This maximizes the arc-on time and the productivity of the welding robot.

To summarize, the KUKA SimPro provides the following benefits:

Teaching and programming of new parts do not have to be carried out at the robot cell, the production capacity of the robot will not be affected.

Eliminate the danger and damages to the equipment if teaching and programming is done at the robot cell.

Increase the efficiency of the programmer, the program will be optimized.



8. Create certificate for every robot welded

seams and be 100% confident on its quality.

It happens very often that quality assurance auditor challenges the production personnel on the robot-welded seams’ quality. The production personnel have no answer to this because there is no record of the actual welding parameters for each seam. Although the production personnel can see that the welding parameters setting on the welding robot, but he is not sure whether the all the related equipment is generating the required parameters. He has no way to check this because there is no actual measurement and recording of all the parameters for each welded seam. It is also a known fact that the equipment and components can age and has certain service lifespan.

KUKA can provide a solution to the above situation by incorporating a full-fledge real time welding parameters monitoring system. It checks current, voltage, wire speed, real welding speed etc. of a particular welding seam. It also records the consumption of shielding gas and wire. The system is able to automatically identify welding faults, create certificates of quality for each seam, find the optimized welding parameters and provide early diagnostic of maintenance.

9. Optimized Robot Speed Due to its cast Aluminum Alloy construction and Finite Element Analysis design, the KUKA robot is match exactly to the dynamic model in the robot controller.

KUKA robot is able to optimized its speed according to the actual load it is carrying and hence improve the cycle time and



extend its service life. KUKA robots acceleration is 25% higher than the corresponding model from other manufacturer.s.

A comparison of various manufacturers is given in the table below. It is not difficult to find out that KUKA has the best reach and speed ratio.

Speed of each axis Robot Reach

(mm)

Payloa

d

(kg)

Sup

pl.

Load

(kg)

Axis 1 Axis 2 Axis 3 Axis 4 Axis 5 Axis 6

KUKA KR6 arc 1611 6 30 156o/s 156o/s 156o/s 343o/s 362o/s 659o/s

KUKA KR16 1611 16 30 156o/s 156o/s 156o/s 330o/s 330o/s 615o/s

KUKA KR16L6 1911 6 30 156o/s 156o/s 156o/s 335o/s 335o/s 647o/s

ABB 1410 933 5 37

Panarobot

VR006

1305 6 120o/s 120o/s 120o/s 300o/s 300o/s 375o/s

Panarobo

TA-1400

1334 6 170o/s 190o/s 190o/s 370o/s 375o/s 600o/s

Motoman

EA1400N

1390 3 150o/s 160o/s 170o/s 340o/s 334o/s 520o/s

Fanuc 100iB/6S 951 6 200o/s 200o/s 260o/s 400o/s 400o/s 720o/s

10. Open Windows @ RealTime PC Based Control

Architecture KUKA is the only robot with the above control technology. This reduces tremendously the integration, maintenance, operating, training and upgrading cost. Remote diagnosis and ERP type of reporting can be implemented with minimal extra cost. Software PLC cuts down the total system integration cost by eliminating the hardware PLC requirement.



11. Longest Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) KUKA robots have a Mean Time Between Failure of more then 75,000 Hours. This is a very stringent selection criteria in industries which have a very high downtime cost.

12. Direct support team right at your door step The best equipment needs the best support team in order to be the best in the market, Kuka Robot Automation ( Malaysia ) Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Kuka Global ( Germany ) , and the Regional Office for South East Asia with a strong team of more then 50 staff recognizes this. With more than 10 years of experience in the local market, we are able to provide all the support you need to ensure the continuous operation of your robot, or any other robotic requirement for the upgrading of your facilities.

13. The Most Experienced Robotic Welding

Team We offer you our wide experience in robotic welding, accumulated over more than 10 years of satisfying our customer’s requirement, covering MIG/MAG, TIG, Plasma, Twin Wire Welding, Adaptive Welding with Laser Sensor, Welding with Touch and /or Through Arc Sensing. We can also share our experience with you on welding of various product, e.g. automotive components, steel furniture, steel structure, machine structure, office equipment chasis, bus structure, forklift structure, locomotive structure, earth moving equipment, material handling equipments etc. Please refer to the attached sheet for some of the projects which have been completed by us.



Some of the Robotic Welding Projects Done By Our Team of Engineers

Photo of System Product Welded

System Configuration

No of systems / Location

Exhaust pipes for cars.

KR 6 with 7 axis, Fronius TPS 4000 and touch sensing.

11/Thailand

Steel beds KR 6 with KEMPPI Pro 4000, Binzel Robo 24 torch, KUKA torch cleaner

1/Malaysia

Office equipment chasis

KR 6 with Thermaldyne Ultima 150 and 2 rotating jigs.

1/Malaysia



Office furniture metal components

KR 6 with KEMPPI Pro 4000, Binzel Robo 24 torch, KUKA torch cleaner

1/ Malaysia

Armor vehicle component welding

KR 6 with 7 axis, gantry positioner, touch sensing, through arc sensing and Fronius TPS 4000

1 / Singapore



Forklift side body

KR 16 with Fronius TPS 5000, touch sensing, through arc sensing, 2 nos. of head and tail positioners.

3 / China

Bus body structure welding

KR 30 L16 with Fronius TPS 4000, touch sensing.

6 / Malaysia

Train chasis welding

KR 16 L6 with adjustable 8 m, 3000 kg head and tail stock positioner, 3000 kg turnover positioner, Fronius Time Twin TPS 5000, touch sensing, and through arc sensing.

1 / China

Stainless steel space frame for the roof of MRT station.

KR 6 with Kemppi TIG welding equipment.

2 / Singapore



Welding of beam for storage racking.

KUKA KR 6 with Fronius TP 4000, torch cleaner, Drum welding wire and two linear tracks for positioning.

3 / Malaysia

Welding of golf club heads

KUKA KR 16 with Thermaldyne Ultima 150, Servo Robot Laser Sensor.

1 / China

Welding of structure for photocopies

KUKA KR 16 with Fronius TPS 4000, torch cleaner, head and tail positioner and linear track.

3 / China

Welding of excavator shovel

KUKA KR 6 KS Arc with Lincoln 500 A 100% duty cycle welding machine, through arc sensor, touch sensor.

1 / Malaysia



Welding of Aluminum to Steel with Cold Metal Transfer System

KUKA KR 16 with Fronius CMT system.

1 / Malaysia

TIG and MIG welding of Machine components for the electronic industry.

KUKA KR 16 with automatic torch changer, Kemppi Kempomig 4000R and Master tig 3500.

1 / Malaysia

MIG welding of rubber glove lines components.

KUKA KR 16 with Kempomig 4000R.

1 / Malaysia



Welding of white board frame.

KR 16 with Kemppomig

1 / Malaysia

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KUKA Welding Robot – Making More Money for You 1. …srcrobotic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/How-KUKA... · KUKA Welding Robot – Making More Money for You 1. Reduce the downtime