FAVO
The company FAVO is engaged in the production of folding tables for wallpapers. Three robots are installed, along with a controller, gripper and welding machines.
The task at hand required automating the feeding of parts to a conveyor system for powder coating.
We robotized the process of welding the legs for tables made by the company, with the two robots connected by a digital interface to a machine to automatically feed and fix the parts in the required position for welding.
The installed robots are a total of three robots in two systems:
KUKA KR8 R1620 robot manipulator with KRC4 Compact controller and a specially developed gripper, allowing picking up 4 types of parts and hanging them to a powder coating system. Digital interface and encoder, KUKA ConveyorTech software for synchronization with the powder coating system.
Two KUKA KR8 R1620 ARC HW welding robots, with KRC4 Compact controllers, Profinet communication and Fronius TPS 320i welding machines with Profinet interface.
Welding robot
Taking the parts from a pre-positioned cart and hanging them on hooks on the powder coating system. The robot synchronizes its movement to the conveyor system via the encoder and KUKA ConveyorTech.
The two welding robots work simultaneously to weld the workpieces and signal the positioning machine to load new welding workpieces. The machine automatically arranges the finished parts on a cart, which is then positioned to the first hanging robot on the paint conveyor.
The problems we solved during this project were as follows:
Difficult calibration of the encoder to the powder coating system - a chain of about 70 meters is used, which is heated and cooled during the coating process. Hence the corresponding difference in the positioning of the details.
The welding parts are 0.5-0.7mm thick and require a special welding mode to achieve a good weld without drilling. Also, due to differences in the dimensions of the parts themselves, there was a need for additional weld length to compensate for this