Robot welding is the use of mechanized programmable tools (robots) to fully automate the welding process by performing welding and processing parts.
Although processes such as gas metal arc welding are often automated, they are not necessarily equivalent to robotic welding, because operators sometimes prepare the materials to be welded. Robotic welding is commonly used for resistance spot welding and arc welding in high-production applications such as the automotive industry.
Robot welding is a relatively new application of robotics, although robots were first introduced to American industry in the 1960s. Until the 1980s, when the automotive industry began to widely use robots for spot welding, the use of robots in welding did not take off. Since then, the number of robots used in industry and the number of applications have greatly increased.
But its growth is mainly due to the high cost of equipment and restrictions on high-production applications.
Robot arc welding has just begun to develop rapidly, and it has occupied about 20% of industrial robot applications. The main components of the arc welding robot are the manipulator or mechanical unit and the controller, which act as the "brain" of the robot, and the manipulator is the power of the robot's movement. The design of these systems can be divided into several different types, such as they use different coordinate systems to guide the arms of the machine.
The robot can weld pre-programmed positions, guided by machine vision, or by a combination of the two methods.
However, many benefits of robotic welding have been proven. It is a new technology that can help many original equipment manufacturers to improve accuracy, repeatability and throughput.
Since the end of the 1990s, signature image processing technology has risen to analyze real-time electronic data collected from automated robot welding in real time, so as to optimize welding.