Laser Welded Blanks

Challenge
Automate a blank welding process for a plant that could not live with the automation solutions used in its larger sister plants. High variety and lower volumes were the norm here and the corporate solutions were geared to single part, high volume production. The plant needed a way to blend people and automation to rapidly switch between the many different parts that they needed to produce.

Solution
Operators were kept at the shearing and inspection processes— the two most difficult to automate while remaining agile. The remaining operations were handled by a robot that could easily change between part configurations. The result was a production line that made more parts per day than those at the other plants and required less than half of the capital investment.

Key Features

• A novel "pallet-less" blank infeed accepts small stacks from the shear operator without interrupting the system
• A single robot can tend two lasers
• Two different parts can be made by the system at one time
• Quick change robot tooling and tool racks allow automatic changeover