ABICOR BINZEL manufactures high quality MIG welding products and peripheral equipment, from torch cleaning stations to torch exchange stations. In addition, BINZEL has a complete line of sensors, from laser seam tracking to automated weld inspection.
Yaskawa Motoman delivers high quality industrial robots and fully integrated robotic automation systems. Yaskawa provides extremely robust and precise industrial robots which includes a full line of high-payload, high-speed, extended-reach robots for applications which include: assembly & handling, packaging & palletizing, painting & dispensing, and/or welding & cutting.
Over the years, ABICOR BINZEL and Yaskawa Motoman have developed a rich relationship and history with each other through product development and service. One of our most valuable partnerships has been incorporating BINZEL robotic welding torches with Yaskawa welding robots. As the "bread and butter" of each company respectively are the industrial robots and welding torches, BINZEL and Yaskawa pride ourselves on the ability to seamlessly integrate our two products to provide a top-notch robotic welding solution for automated welding applications.
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Products
Yaskawa has engineered a special cable for a robotic welding torch. The cable is one of the most critical components of a robotic welding torch because it transfers current from the welding power supply to the welding wire. It is subject to an extremely harsh environment in most manufacturing plants. The cable must endure constant rotational flexibility as the robot manipulates the welding torch to access the welding joint, abrasion resistance as the torch rubs against both fixturing and the part to be welded and exposure to ultraviolet light emitted from the welding arc which can quickly degrade an inferior product.
"The biggest thing that Yaskawa has is a patented through-arm robot cable, that is exclusively available to BINZEL. All of our BINZEL torches come in with that cable, and it has proven to be the most flexible, reliable, and industry tested cable out there today."
- Jason Young, Associate Chief Engineer - Hardware Solutions, Yaskawa Motoman
Yaskawa has basically used this cable throughout the history of selling their EA, MA, and AR series robots, so there's thousands of these cables in use. Based on the success we've seen with this cable, it's not typical that it gets replaced for a few years. And that's remarkable for this type of harsh environment.
BINZEL buys this special cable in bulk from Yaskawa in Japan. It then gets processed and assembled at our BINZEL US manufacturing facility in Frederick, MD, where it is incorporated into the ABIROB torches that Yaskawa uses. As for the torches themselves, BINZEL provides our high-quality, robust robotic welding torches to Yaskawa as part of this partnership.
BINZEL torches are highly repeatable and precise due in large part to our keyed swannecks. Using a key and keyway on the replaceable quick change swanneck allows customers to change out a swanneck with little or no robot program touch up.
On the welding torch side, there are a lot of back-end connections that allows customers to attach a BINZEL robotic welding torch to a wire variety of different wire feeders. There are also arms available to mount a BINZEL torch to a wire variety of robots. The design allows for a real plug-and-play mobility. You can plug it in with any of the Yaskawa robots, throw it in any applications, from thin gauge steel welding low amperage to thick plate heavy welding three inch plate, and know hat you will get the productivity you need from it.
"More customers are doing high-deposition, as well as aluminum type welding, where they need a robust water-cooled torch. BINZEL is our single source for those types of water-cooled torches. Again, because of the quality and availability, this is something our customers trust and we trust. We work very well together with building those types of products."
- Joshua Leath, Senior Product Manager - Thermal Robotics, Yaskawa Motoman
Customers demand very robust products, something that they can put into place and not have to service it. BINZEL torches and Yaskawa robots do just that!
Service
Between the outstanding technical team at Yaskawa and our team of experts at BINZEL, who know our products really well, we are able to collectively deliver robust automation equipment for many welding needs in the industry.
Our two companies work really well together, and not just technically, but also commercially. Yaskawa has a very deep pool of talent in the welding industry and in their processes, and BINZEL has the same thing. That's what makes the marriage so good, we both have very experienced, technical people that have a lot of knowledge in welding. We can all work on an application and work together very well, while bringing all that information, knowledge, and education to the table to help the customer solve a problem.
Over the years, Yaskawa and BINZEL have seen the effects this partnership has had...and that is something deeply valued by both companies. We've seen such good application experiences with these products combined, which can be attributed to the extensive work done from both sides to see this come together.
On our end, we have multiple guys stopping in at Yaskawa to help integrate a torch, or any of our peripheral products that are available to them. Whenever someone has questions or needs some additional assistance with anything, both teams are eager to get together and resolve issues to make things better understood by all.
The knowledge shared amongst all is tremendous and it continues to grow each day, leading to better solutions to come for many in the welding industry.