Humma Launches Robotic Welding Program.

Humma Launches Robotic Welding Program.

2020 has brought at lot of challenges to Australia and the manufacturing industry. DRA has looked at ways to overcome the issues with manufacturing and decided to venture down the path of Robotic Welding for their Humma Cranes fabrication.

Robotic Welding allows a company to increase their production capacity, increase their quality and reduce the amount of rework. Although it has been around for many years it is still not common place outside the realms of large OEM’s and Mass Producers. DRA has looked at the various technologies available and decided to pursue the proposal put forward by West Australian local company R&E Engineering. R&E specialise in robotic installs and represent the German CLOOS brand of Welding and Robot technology.

The system installed comprises of the welding robot mounted inverted to a moving tower. A 5T manipulator and adjustable idler was selected which allows welding of a range of complex components. The 5T manipulator is the largest of its kind in the country. It can be easily rotated to allow for welding of booms, chassis and a range of components. The robot comes fitted with 2 different types of welding torches. A single torch for basic welding in a range of positions, and a tandem torch for large longer welds. The tandem torch is a highly beneficial technology. Not only does it allow a long large weld in a short time, but it also has much smaller heat input into the material being welded. This reduces distortion and increases weld quality.

Before welding, the CAD model is loaded into the robot software for analysis. The welding path and manipulator controls are adjusted and tested to avoid any collisions and to achieve the most efficient welding time. Before each weld a laser scan is completed. The laser is mounted to the welding torch and is used to match up where the item is in the real world compared to where the item is in the computer program. Once matched up the robot starts welding. Feedback from the welding system allows the torch to track where it is welding to ensure it stays at the correct height and distance from the seam. This seam tracking technology also allows for any movement within the material while welding.

Robotic Welding is cutting edge technology and was the logical progression for Humma Cranes which are also cutting edge technology. DRA is passionate about the Australian Manufacturing Sector and can proudly say they are the only range of P&C Cranes that are truly Australian Made. Robotic Welding is just the next step in the evolution of the cranes while allowing DRA to increase the production of Humma and keeping them an Australian Made product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

09 Dec 2020