how come welding is so tough to automate (how come there’s lots of welders, but factory work was automated)
In: Engineering
You would be surprised how much welding is automated. For example, the majority of joints in pipelines are automated ( in position with orbital ) . Obviously automotive industry is an example of all robotic. Heavy fabrication is heavily reliant to robotics as well.
Big change I have seen ( I work as automation specialist in Welding ) is shipyard construction. It’s simply not true that a robot needs prefect fit-up and programming. Quite the opposite now where systems will via vison system and / or the CAD drawings will do the path programming on the fly. You can take a micropanel with all the stiffeners and bulkheads and the robotic systems will go in between bulkheads and through the vision will program all the out of position and flat position welds and do them far more efficiently than a welder
I also spend much of my time in the wind energy and offshore sector. All the heavy welding on the monopiles, towers etc are done with automation with vision and laser seam tracking. The one part that is always tough with automation is the TKY nodes as well as ladder mounts and other dicky fitup . Having said that all the fabricators are make great trides the past couple of years to even automate these welds.
Bottom line is adaptive vision has really come along in the past few years . Current trend is beyond that where it’s not only adaptive but using artificial intelligence it will make decision on how to adapt the welding path and parameters.
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