At Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI we have four (4) articulated arm welding robots. Two old Miller arms and two RJ3 Fanuc arms with Lincoln GMAW power sources
hello!!! I don't beleave i have met you? I am at the Van Buren Technology Center In Lawrence MI. We have our second robot. Its a ABB 1400 U1 welding cell with a coordinated 7th axis. I am interested in curriculum ect. write back please ... thanks
At Conestoga College in Ontario, Canada we have 3 robotic welding systems in our labs. A Motoman c/w Kobelco GMAW, a Fanuc c/w RSW and a brand-new Panasonic sytem c/w GMAW and data acquisition system.
In the 2nd & 3rd year of our WeldTECH program, we teach robotic programming fundamentals and welding applications programming to optimize quality and productivity.
We are also doing some work with offline simulation/programming software for cell design, offline programming, cycle time optimization, etc.
I'm also interested in what others are up to. Cheers all!
Karsten
WOW! I'm jealous! That's quite a lab the both of you have, I wish school was that "high tech" 27 years ago.
Where do the robots fall into your currriculums? Most start out at basic welding processes (SMAW, GMAW, etc.) and process control (manual or semi-automatic).
We do not utilize robotic welding in our labs but do use a converted track torch for teaching GMAW machine setting paramaters quite often. We simply constructed a removable fixture which holds the GMAW gun. Stickout can be easily adjusted with the torch vertical adjustment and speed is easily adjustable with the speed adjustment. It is great for demonstrating variables such as speed, stickout, push/pull, and various gasses in the gmaw process. I have a gun which I converted the trigger on to a simple toggle switch and can easily and quickly interchange on various machines with different gasses and wires. Its not a true robot and only works in the flat position but utilizes equipment we already had and is great for demo purposes. It allows me to make adjustments "in weld" and talk to them to let them figure out whats taking place during a weld and different weld variables. I really like to get it going on a GMA machine that has a digital volt readout and lift or lower the gun/stickout so the students can see what the machine has to go through to adjust voltage to keep the arc length constant. It really makes them do a good job of realizing how important keeping a constant setback is to a weld and wire feed. Like I said, its not a robot but its a great and inexpensive teaching tool if you happen to have a track torch! But if you dont happen to have a track torch then I just wasted your time.
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