2009-10-26 - Allt i Plåt, a small company in southern Sweden that manufactures cabs for mining machines and cranes, has been able to increase weld output & quality with a robot system from ABB partner, Andon Automation..
The unemployment rate for professional welders in southern Sweden is so low that family-owned company Allt i Plåt (loosely translated as "everything in sheet metal") decided to meet the increased demand for its products by purchasing a welding system from ABB partner Andon Automation
Modernization strategy
Allt i Plåt, which employs about 50 people, installed the robotic welding cell with ABB robot in one of its large manufacturing halls as part of a company-wide modernization strategy – the biggest in the company’s history. “We invested 25 million SEK to upgrade our facilities and modernize our equipment,” says Christer Persson, who took over the company with his brother and sister in 1995.
40,000 different parts pieced together
The changes in the factory are on a grand scale. Besides the robotic cell, which is used to deliver over 600 meters of weld on a 1,000-kilogram mining machine’s cab, Allt i Plåt has also installed a precision Trumpf laser cutting machine. This machine takes sheets of steel 1,500 millimeters wide by 3,000 millimeters long and cuts them into 40,000 different parts that are then welded together to manufacture the operator cabs.
Among the company’s clients are manufacturers within the mining, trucking and forestry industries. Making these huge machine cabs is a welding-intensive business. After laser cutting all the individual pieces of a cab are “tacked” together with small spot welds. Then the cab, which at this point looks like a cable car, is transported to the robotic welding cell.
Whole cab welded in three hours
In the cell the 1,000 kg cab is secured to a 2-axis positioner, which rotates it into the optimal welding position. “The communication between the robot and the part positioner is where the advanced technology comes in,” says Lennart Niklasson of Andon Automation.
The ultimate benefit, according to Persson, is that the robot can weld a whole cab in just three hours where manually it would have taken a whole shift. “In addition, the quality of the welds is much higher, which for a mining machine that works in dangerous environments is an important safety improvement,” he says. “And our customers also appreciate that we are using more efficient production processes.”
After the welding operation each individual cab is painted, buffed and outfitted with all the necessary cables, sound isolation and safety glass. “These cabs actually look quite nice,” says Persson, standing next to a bright yellow unit that just came out of the paint shop. “It is too bad they have to go down a mine and get all dirty and scratched up.”
Allt i Plåt's benefits from automated welding
- Welding time per cab has reduced from a whole shift when done manually - to just 3 hours.
- Capacity and production output increased
- Improved weld quality
- Consistent manufacturing processes employed
Allt i Plåt selected the ABB IRB 1600 industrial robot with the IRC5 control system from Andon Automation . They are an approved ABB partner and engineering specialist within arc welding and thermal cutting applications based in Örebro, Sweden. |