Semi-conductor fabrication, pharmaceutical industry, aerospace and food processing: all these industries and many more need high quality tube assemblies made of stainless steel. Not all of these markets are still present in Europe but very active in other parts of the world. Let us take the example of the semi-conductor industry: they are mostly produced in South-East Asia and in the United States.
In Europe, very few - or even no - companies have a mass production of semi-conductors. Other markets are very active in Europe, such as the pharmaceutical and the food industry. Whatever the markets, they have to maintain their activity in production in developed areas, they have to be flexible and maintain productivity.
Industry constantly needs innovation in order to produce more effectively and faster.
What is the future for orbital welding?
Orbital welding for new market applications
There are a lot of examples in the industries where numerical sequences are used to know the production rate and to produce virtually on its own. In Europe this is the case for cutting machines, where the automation process is more and more in demand.
Hence, welding processes look for productivity and quality. Nowadays good manual welders are becoming more and more rare and companies wish to automate the welding production more and more as well. In the beginning, orbital welding was only used in high tech markets such as aerospace and semi-conductors. Today you can find orbital welding in markets with less added value such as the pharmaceutical production (click to discover a case study in this field) or more recently the food industry.
Welding automation simplifies the process
As it is more and more difficult to find qualified operators, the machines have to comply with this fact and become intuitive, easy to learn and with easy and simple access. In the past the different machines were very complicated to manage the production process. Only highly qualified people were able to operate the machines. The trend today is to have a user friendly operating system combining simplicity and efficiency!
From its early beginnings, AXXAIR has cared about the simplification of its machines and in creating an easy learning process. The global approach includes the tube preparation and the welding itself. With the automation process, the tube preparation is even more important. In fact, the best robot in the world is still the human being, as he can see and react very quickly. In addition to this he has one of the most beautiful inventions. He has arms and fingers, and all is coordinated by the brain, which can be considered as a high-speed computer.
In fact, manual welders can make adjustments if the tube preparation has not been carried out correctly. But the orbital welding machine, in carrying out its tasks, cannot handle a bad tube preparation: it is programmed for a perfect tube and a perfect tube preparation.
The whole production line must be optimized before automating the welding process.
What will the future look like?
Can manual welders be replaced by robots?
Will we have some day humanoids robots able to reproduce all the gestures of a manual welder combining the precision and the repeatability of the orbital welding equipment in order to carry out even more complex welding seams which are not only on one simple on one plan.
Visual recognition is taking huge strides. Images can now be analysed nearly in real-time conditions but this technology is very expensive. However we think that these aspects will become more and more widespread and common practice in the future.
Who would have imagined robots welcoming you in a department store 20 years ago ? Maybe Mr Spielberg !
Axxair surveys these trends and closely monitors the technical developments in order to be able to offer the best technological solution as soon as costs become acceptable.
In order to help our customers with best advise and support we have elaborated numerous handbooks, which can help you to finalize your project. Do not hesitate and download our handbook of orbital welding.
