ABIBLOG United States

Seam Tracking and Welding Peripherals: ABICOR BINZEL x Yaskawa Motoman

Written by Scott Huber | Mar 10, 2022 1:00:00 PM

With the current state of the welding industry as it sits now, we are seeing a lot of manufacturers moving away from manual to create a more automated process. With this comes a host of new welding equipment that can benefit your process, from improving repeatability and traceability, to increasing productivity and general performance.

Products

ABICOR BINZEL, in collaboration with Yaskawa Motoman Robotics, provides automated welding peripheral solutions to add to the Yaskawa robot and BINZEL welding torch. In terms of the robot, Yaskawa has seen great success with their robust product and they are able to go into a number of manufacturing locations and provide a high-level automated solution. 

In addition to the torch, BINZEL offers the option to add...

Each of these systems play a crucial role in the overall performance of your welding equipment.

Seam Tracking

The seam tracking technology in the TH6 reliably finds the weld joint in real time and the robot as fast as you can weld the part. Sturdy and unique, the TH6 scans the joint in the XYZ axis to improve robot uptime and overall weld quality. Additionally, it seamlessly integrates with the Yaskawa robotic interface, making programming and data collection easy and reliable. 

The Scansonic BINZEL Seam Tracking sensor is a powerful weld sensor that can be used on many different types of metals, namely metals that Yaskawa could not do in the past - like very shiny metals, aluminum, and laser cut metals. With the seam tracker and interface from Yaskawa, seam finding has opened up the doors to new possibilities. 

"I've seen it. You can really park the sensor over the part and within 5-10 minutes, it's trained to be thrown at a range of material finishes and surfaces."

- Jack Moore, Welding Engineer - Yaskawa Motoman

The sensors provide a lot of data for the robot. They can take in and give you information on gaps, mismatches, and what the weld joint looks like. Yaskawa can then take that information and translate it into some adaptive technology. If they see a gap, they can adjust weave frequencies, travel speeds, and amperages or parameters on the fly. You're really able to know that you can put the weld in the correct spot, with the right parameter set, and come back through to inspect the face and know that the weld was perfect. 

This gives the confidence of the supplier to be able to ship their parts out and know that they're shipping out quality, good parts.

Torch Cleaning and Gas Management

When it comes to torch maintenance, the TCS torch cleaning station provides a true plug-and-play solution for robotic welding. Equipped with the technology to catch tray overs on the reamer blade and wire cutting for a cleaner, more efficient reaming cycle. 

In addition to this, the has management system plays a crucial role as it allows the user to reduce the amount of gas consumption and operating costs. The real-time advantage of this system allows for synchronization with the welding current.

Both of these systems are integrated with the robot to increase the overall performance of this robotic equipment. Yaskawa and BINZEL's partnership has proven to help a number of welders in the automation space with this true all-in-one solution. 

Service

Our team of experts works closely with the team at Yaskawa to deliver the highest quality service. Many members of our team, including myself, help in the integration process as we have extensive knowledge in the robotic and sensor industry. 

For over 10 years, Yaskawa and BINZEL have partnered to bring the highest-quality automated products together to fit all welding needs. Yaskawa has been very helpful in making sure their software packages are able to interface with out weld sensor technology, while maintaining the evolution of their different software and robot models. They ensure BINZEL sensors can be easily integrated to fit each new product line.

Recently, Yaskawa redeveloped their MotoEye software, which was designed originally to be a single source sensor, but now they can adapt multiple different sensors. 

"We are very confident using the product. They are very robust, easy to use, and we always get great support from the BINZEL team."

- Jack Moore, Product Engineer - Yaskawa Motoman

Both companies consist of welding professionals. They know the products in and out, and are able to combine their deep industry knowledge to create cutting edge technology for users.