For the welding of aluminium silo segments, Jansens & Dieperink in Zaandam, a worldwide leader in aluminium silos, has switched to welding robots.
For the welding of aluminium silo segments, Jansens & Dieperink in Zaandam, a worldwide leader in aluminium silos, has switched to welding robots. For years, Jansens & Dieperink used the semi-automa-tic longitudinal seam welding machines for full length welding in linear movement. Due to the distur-bance sensitiveness this process is less reliable, leading to further delays in the manufacturing process. The Valk Welding supply consists in two welding robot cells, one of which is provided with an Arc-Eye seam following system. Ronald van Halderen, Manager, states, “As a market leader we want to be at the forefront. These high-end welding robot installations are an important step towards automation, with the benefits of continuity, higher and constant quality, so that less manual labor is required.”
Experience with new process
The single welding of the four segments is performed in the first cell. Ronald van Halde-ren explains, ”This first cell has taught us what can happen when you orientate your process in a different way. Jointly with Valk Welding we have struggled with the wire feeding and there was a time that we found tolerance issues.
Once this was under control, the advantages of the constant output became evident in the further processes. That is when you start looking for other parts in the welding process where semi-automatic welding is used.”
Search with laser sensor
“Shortly after, we replaced the longitudinal seam welding machine for the large segment length with a welding robot installation. The cell supplied by Valk Welding consists of two above-pending welding robots, which in a 19 m longitudinal movement operate on two worktables. Jointly, these Panasonic TA 1600WGH3 welding robots are able to weld segments with a maximum length of 7 m simultaneously.” Jansens & Dieperink has also decided to equip the new robot installation with a lasersensor welding seam monitoring system, although this was not necessary for the straight welding seams. Jansens & Diepe-rink is planning to continue the automated welding work by implementing welding ro-bots. For this particular process mostly round and conical molds are involved, for which this kind of welding seam monitoring system is re-quired. “The experience we have acquired with this system will be very useful for the future.”
High-end welding robot technology
The Panasonic TA arc welding robots with last generation G3 robot control provide Jansens & Dieperink with advanced robot technology. Panasonic offers a complete system, developed for the arc welding process, in which all components, such as the robot, control, laser camera, wire feeding, and software are manufactured in-house. The ad-vantage to this is that these components will form a perfect match. Ronald van Halderen as-serts, “Valk Welding has also the expertise to integrate these seamlessly into a customized installation.”
