2023

Lund Hannu; Penttilä Sakari; Skriko Tuomas

Automation of welding robot programming is a method to improve the productivity of multi-robotic welding production. However, robotic welding off-line programming and simulation software packages often neglect the effect of the welding distortions to a workpiece, which is one of the main problems during jigless assembly in multi-robot welding. Therefore, knowledge-based information of the amount of welding distortion is often required for the off-line programming of a jigless multi-robot welding to be successful. This paper assesses a knowledge-based welding distortion estimation method through practical verification experiments. The measured angular distortions, from preliminary welding experiments, were used as a basis for setting the preset angle and modifying the position of the handling robot in the verification welding experiment. The results indicate that the consistency in achieving the required preset angle during part positioning and the consistency of the amount of angular welding distortion, is sufficient to beneficially exploit the welding distortion in obtaining perpendicular fillet weld joint geometry, which fulfils the tolerances set in standards EN ISO 5817 and EN ISO 13920 respectively.