Welding cobots are in increasing demand to help welders and businesses safely increase productivity and repeatability and improve weld quality – while also removing the mind-numbing task of repeated production welding for welders that are increasingly hard to come by. Among those new cobots is the Blaze Laser Cell, a fully enclosed, standalone, automated laser welding solution that doesn’t require a laser darkroom. This new market entrant is the latest addition to Productive Robotics Inc.’s comprehensive and expanding line of cobot welders, all engineered from the ground up and built in America.
Understanding the workload of today’s fabricators, the Blaze Laser Cell handles both small-batch and high-volume jobs. Built around the high-performance, zero-programming Blaze cobot the company is known for plus the industry-leading LightWeld laser system from IPG Photonics Corp., the Laser Cell combines dramatically faster welding with exceptional ease of use.
Feasible features
To get fabricators up and running in short order, the Laser Cell is turnkey and simple for any size shop to set up out of the box – without the need for third-party integrators. Alexia Perry, vice president of Rocker Industries, a provider of defense, aerospace and commercial solenoid and solenoid valve solutions, explains.
“It really felt like Productive Robotics was more of a partner for us,” Perry says. “Also, the ease of setup was huge. We knew our team could completely set up and have no issues.”
And once it’s ready to go, it features helpful technologies, such as the company’s proprietary Blaze Vision Live Video so that operators can monitor the welding in progress in real time from two views without the need for welding visors, goggles or welding screens.
Additional features include active fume extraction for operation in most environments with easy ducting away from the operator and workers nearby. Further assisting operators is the Laser Cell’s unrestricted access to the large-format weld table, making loading and unloading easy and ergonomic. Built-in bright LED lighting also fully illuminates the job at hand, reducing any strain on the eyes for job setups and fixturing.
In action
The Laser Cell only needs minimal setup to be ready to give fabricators the benefits of laser welding without the complexity of a typical laser welding cell. Benefits of laser welding include the lasers’ low heat input the ability to join metals of different thicknesses, creating high-strength joints while using minimal or no consumable wire. According to a representative from Associated American Industries, a company out of Allen, Texas, that provides equipment solutions to food service and retail industries, laser welding also improves the speed and quality of welds.
“The Blaze laser let us replace thousands of spot welds with continuous laser welded seams,” the rep says. “This is a faster process that completely seals the parts instead of just connecting them.”
Materials up to 1/4 in., including steel, aluminum, copper, titanium and nickel alloys can all be laser welded. And that includes thick, thin and reflective metal welds that are finished without distortion, deformation, undercut or burnthrough, which reduces secondary machining or the need to straighten parts deformed by high heat input.
The IPG LightWeld 1500 is included as standard with the Blaze Laser Cell, but it can also be ordered with optional pre- and post-laser cleaning capabilities (up to a 15-mm cleaning path), allowing operators to switch from laser welding to laser cleaning with an easy and quick nozzle swap. The boost in capability, speed and quality, plus the empowerment of welders at all skill levels to do more, with less rework, means fabricators can start realizing productivity gains up to five times compared to traditional methods from day one.
No programming
No matter the bells and whistles, if a welding cell isn’t easy to use, it’s essentially useless. That’s why Productive Robotics focused on eliminating programming with the introduction of its teach-by-doing technology in 2017 – the first of its kind. The innovation radically simplified the way fabricators work with cobots as the Blaze line of welding cobots learns entirely by doing. In other words, operators physically move the torch to show the cobot the start and end of welds, tack points, circles or any complex shape at the touch of a button.
Anyone can teach the Blaze cobot to weld a new job in matter of minutes, typically in less time than it would take a welder to do manually. Once a welding job is set up, the production run moves many times faster than manual welding. Subsequently, the cobot will also remember the job for future runs, further speeding up the time to process a job. All welding details and recipes are easily set on the tablet controller with drag-and-drop simplicity.
Furthermore, there is complete control and customization of weld parameters, weld recipes, weld types and selection of all IPG laser welding and cleaning presets. The built-in factory presets for welding and cleaning reduce learning curves, making overall training fast for new operators and experienced welders alike.
“We save significant time and money while increasing quality and precision,” says Timo Lunceford, general manager at Swiss Productions Inc., a precision screw machine shop out of Ventura, Calif.
The 7-axis advantage
When it comes to welding maneuverability, Productive Robotics’ 7-axis Blaze cobot is unmatched. Thanks to its seven axes, the robotic welding system can move in and around obstacles, such as a workpiece fixture, while steadily maintaining the torch’s position. Standard on all Blaze cobots, the 7-axis reach saves fabricators time and money by allowing welders to get more weldments done in a single setup, versus having to re-fixture with the more-common 6-axis cobot.
To appreciate the benefits, it’s helpful to know that the human arm has seven degrees of freedom from the shoulder to the hand. A welder uses all that natural freedom to manipulate the torch where needed. Having a cobot with that same capability as welders made a lot of sense to the engineering and welding teams at Productive Robotics. And, while many 7-axis industrial robots require safety cages, Productive Robotics is currently the only U.S. company to provide 7-axis cobots that work safely alongside humans.
Productive Robotics’ Blaze range of cobot welders are all laser-focused on solutions for production efficiency, strengthening teams, cost control and labor challenges. The company brings expertise in robotics, welding, and light safe enclosures all to bear in the engineering of the Blaze Laser Cell with IPG LightWeld lasers. This affordably priced solution is for shops not only looking to boost productivity, stay competitive and ship on time, but to keep current, attract early entry welders and showcase leading edge capabilities to customers.
