| Abstract: |
In order to meet the demands of the ever-increasing requirements of a competitive market, not only flexibility is required from todays production systems, they must, above all, be characterised by a high versatility. Versatility is to be understood as the capability to adapt system structure and technology very fastly to changing boundary conditions, also in case of high diversity of product variants and/or low numbers of pieces per lot. For the quality-wise management of tolerances, the parts are, in automated welding production, mostly fixed in devices which themselves have often a highly complex design and are thus generating expenditure with regard to the manufacturing costs. Here, economic viability is given only for medium and high piece numbers, since the conversion to new products causes considerable changeover expenditure. In single unit and small lot production, therefore, manual welding is mainly used due to its high flexibility. Accordingly, in automated welding production, a high degree of versatility is only achievable if the final welding product is produced without using fixture devices from the primary individual parts. Therefore, the implemented approach to solution pursues the conversion of the welder-assistent principle of manual production to automated welding via the utilisation of cooperating robot systems. Within the scope of this presentation, the methods for the development of a versatile welding production system and the procedure regarding the implementation of the process sequence scenario Welding without fixture devices are illustrated.
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