The white paper - Adapt and change - How adaptive control of resistance welding can cut production costs and improve product quality, reveals that while welding is becoming increasingly automated, lack of adoption of new welding technology is holding industry back.
The white paper aims to provide a solution to common spot welding issues such as shunting, variations of coating and sheet thickness, and weld force disparity. It also addresses the concept that inspection techniques need to be time intensive and unreliable.
Dave Halford, Welding Industry Sector Manager at Bosch Rexroth, who authored the report, said: “Adaptive welding remains a small proportion of the UK’s welding market, but its ability to improve the quality of welds and drive costs out of the manufacturing process, cannot be ignored.”
“Traditional methods are prone to a variety of weld disturbances and inspection techniques take up valuable time with mixed results. By taking an adaptive approach manufacturer’s benefit from real time control and monitoring, as well as improved consistency.”
Weld testing, in particular, is seen as an area where new technology will offer significant improvements, as Halford explained: “Current quality checking methods are problematic and rest on two methods, ultrasonic inspection and manually opening a proportion of completed welds. The first option requires a high level of operator training in order to get consistent results, while the second leads to scrapped parts. Real time monitoring through adaptive welding eradicates the need for these time intensive processes.”