While cobots have made their mark on the welding industry over the past decade or so, the implementation of even this simple automation can be daunting for many fabricators. The traditional challenges with robotic welding, including programming experience, costs and floor space requirements, can make it seem out of reach. But for fabrication shops struggling to find qualified welders and stay competitive, there is no choice in the matter. Automation is a necessity.
Lincoln Electric Automation, however, is speaking to concerns fabricators might have with its Cooper welding cobot platform. This entry-level automation solution combines cobot technology with Lincoln Electric’s long history of welding technology and expertise; few companies better understand the welding process considerations that are important to welders.
“Cobots, in general, are addressing a lot of the pain points for fabricators,” says Sheena Suvak, senior product manager, Lincoln Electric Automation. “Our success lies in understanding how to set up people for success with welding because we know what a welder is going to care about and what is important in the welding process. For the Cooper system, this helped us prioritize all the features in order to make it simpler for what could have otherwise been a little more complicated with traditional programming on an industrial robot.”
All about the app
The software that drives the welding cobot system is the Cooper App. It provides an environment that reduces the amount of robotic programming experience required to create and modify weld programs.
“We’re seeing a lot of shops struggling to find skilled welders, or even looking to bring their welding in-house, turning to automation for the first time,” says Taylor Robertson, project manager, Lincoln Electric Automation. “Many of them don’t have robotic programmers or any sort of native automation knowledge in-house. And some of them are not only looking to boost productivity but actually keep up with production.
“Our primary goals with developing the Cooper App,” she continues, “were to make automation approachable for those shops and pair that with our welding expertise and background to make the sole focus of the app centered around welding. The operator doesn’t have to be an expert programmer or even an expert welder to be successful with the app.”
For easy programming, the app uses Click Click Weld, a system that can take as little as two buttons to create a weld program. For a simple linear weld, it only takes two clicks to set the program and start welding. (More complex geometries may require additional points to define them.)
Another feature, air-motion capture, allows the Cooper App to reduce programming time by removing the need to manually move the cobot to each coordinate.
“With the patented air-motion capture, the operator doesn’t have to explicitly teach each of those air moves,” Robertson says. “The knowledge that goes into defining where an air motion should be goes hand-in-hand with native robotic knowledge. By us doing all the heavy lifting by not making them teach those points, it eases the burden. They’re just guiding the cobot where they want to start their weld and it will follow that path.”
By the numbers
For operators without welding experience, the Cooper App’s patented Weld By Numbers feature provides support. Instead of requiring the operator to manually enter numerous weld parameters, Weld By Numbers reduces that process to a single selection of a number that corresponds to a specific material thickness and weld size.
“We built a lot of our own welding expertise within the Weld By Numbers feature,” Robertson says. “Essentially, we’ve used the 80-20 rule, meaning we take the most common consumables, wire types and sizes, gas mixtures and material thicknesses used for welding and develop pre-baked parameter sets for them. It offers operators who maybe don’t have a strong welding background a great starting point to developed welds. For more experienced welders, the parameters can be modified if needed for a specific application.”
Other standard features include Torch Angle Quick Set and Smart Circle for cylindrical parts. Advanced features for more demanding applications include Thru-Arc Tracking, weld patterning, stitch welding and Weld Schedule Editor.
Hardware benefits
The Cooper welding cobot system is available in various configurations to meet welding needs. Air-cooled systems are for lower amperage applications while water-cooled systems can address heavy-duty applications. A dedicated aluminum system helps manage the challenges associated with aluminum welding.
The Cooper system uses Fanuc CRX and ABB GoFa cobot platforms. Both are IP67-rated to provide protection against the dust, moisture and weld spatter found in typical fabrication environments.
For applications requiring more reach or part rotation, the Cooper Adapt Cobot system offers a turnkey solution, which is currently only available with a Fanuc CRX-10iA/L cobot in air-cooled and water-cooled versions. Cooper Adapt introduces external axes to the cobot, such as a rail or positioner. Programming is incorporated into the Cooper App, maintaining the easy programming.
Customer success
The Cooper welding cobots are well-suited to shops where production involves relatively small quantities of repeatedly produced parts. However, potential applications extend beyond small fabricators.
“The best candidates are smaller job shops that have a high mix of parts and simple, repetitive welds,” Suvak says. “A welding cobot can really help do the simple, boring welds, so companies can be more productive with a lean crew.
“However, with all the industry segments we serve, we’re challenged from bigger OEMs and other industry segments, be it shipyards, energy or construction,” she adds. “They’re interested in the prefab before it goes out into the wild. But they’re also interested in cobot welding out in the field. Fanuc offers its CRX-3iA cobot that can be combined with a magnetic base, which eliminates the need for bolt fastening. Operators can relocate it and the cobot automatically recognizes its position (with the Cooper App’s Search feature routine) and begins welding without re-teaching.”
Regardless of the user, the Cooper system is receiving positive feedback. Several customers have seen significant productivity increases, as documented on the company’s website.
“One customer story I like to point to is with Knott Brake,” Robertson says. “They’re an example of a general fab customer that had previously outsourced all of their welding. They saw a Cooper demo at Fabtech and it gave them confidence that their operators could successfully deploy the technology. And they did. By leveraging Weld By Numbers, they were able to bring their welding in-house, which they had never done before.”
She adds that it is a great example of the type of customer Lincoln Electric had in mind when discussing some of the goals in making the Cooper App so easy to use.
Unsurprisingly, there are several case studies illustrate the kind of productivity increases that are possible with the Cooper system.
“We see a lot of multi-station setups,” Robertson says, “with a welding cobot in the middle and, say, four workstations around it. There will be a spike in productivity because while a cobot is running with one set of parts, the operator is loading another set of parts. So, right there productivity doubled. Another customer, Travis Pattern, saw a huge productivity increase just by introducing one cobot to their setup.”
Overall, the Cooper system allows cobot welding to compliment the capabilities of welders. Simplified programming makes robotic welding accessible to a larger segment of fabricators. For those facing skilled labor shortages, increasing production demands and possibly pressure to bring work back in-house, cobot welding is a first step toward more automated operations.
Cobots, as shown in this article, have revolutionized welding. To learn more, check out our archive of welding articles.
