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Welding expertise

   
Know-how, innovations and strong partnerships make KUKA a competent provider of welding solutions
KUKA KR 175 spot
Hanover, October 2006 – KUKA Roboter has been a powerful partner to the automotive industry for many years. It is therefore extremely familiar with the requirements of its customers in the field of welding. KUKA welding solutions are innovative standard solutions which can be adapted to the customer’s individual needs. Customers benefit from the company’s expertise that has been acquired over many years, resulting in integrated solutions.

This experience and expertise has been brought to bear in many different fields. This is because the tough demands for cost-effectiveness and quality call for new production concepts in all sectors. KUKA Roboter covers the entire welding process chain with innovative robotic solutions. These are not only efficient, but also provide a high level of accuracy and reproducibility – which directly benefits product quality. Irrespective of the individual technologies involved, KUKA Roboter’s product portfolio is characterized by an integrated system philosophy. A uniform look and feel, and consistent maintenance and upgrade concepts, mean that users can quickly familiarize themselves with KUKA robots. Users also benefit from simple operator control, reduced training requirements and optimized inventory and spare parts management.

KUKA quality hits the spot
KUKA KR 175 spot
With the KUKA KR 175 spot, KUKA’s latest product for the field of welding, the company has brought together all its technological expertise in the area of spot welding. The result is a robot, now being launched on the market, that is specialized in point-to-point motion. Thanks to a number of innovations in its design, which set it apart from standard KUKA robots, it guarantees the user cost savings without compromising on performance.
Furthermore, the integrated weld controller expands the robot into a powerful process machine. System interfaces between the robot and the weld controller bring additional costs and are a potential source of faults; with the new KUKA process robot, however, these are eliminated. The operator no longer has to cope with two different control environments, but can operate the entire application – motion and welding process – from the KUKA Control Panel. This means that one whole interface with the higher-level system is no longer required. Moreover, the programmer benefits from simpler process optimization, as the motion and the welding parameters can be changed centrally from the robot control panel.

Arc welding with a touch of orange

In the area of arc welding, KUKA offers its customers well-designed total solutions in the form of KUKA Application Modules. In addition to the robot and controller, these complete packages also contain the necessary arc welding equipment, which can be configured for the specific application. Where required, the KUKA package can also include flexible positioners from a complete modular system; these can be tailored to the exact needs of the customer.
There are virtually no limits here. Especially because KUKA hub technologies make it possible to implement state-of-the-art system concepts. The KUKA RoboTeam, for example, combines with KUKA Safe Technology to allow humans and robots to work together as an expert arc welding team.

Focused, point by point
With its absolutely accurate calibration and its programmable focusing optics from Trumpf, the KUKA laser robot family – consisting of the KR 30 HA, KR 60 HA and KR 100 HA – is ideally suited to laser remote applications. The KR 100 HA, with a reach of 3000 mm and a repeatability of +/- 0.1 mm, puts its competitors in the shade. The process-specific user interface KUKA.LaserTech RPFO simplifies setup and programming for the user. LaserTech RPFO is a technology package from KUKA Roboter for optimizing the laser welding process.
The Trumpf PFO laser head is connected to the laser source via a laser light cable. The parallel beam reaches the lens via a fixed mirror and two mobile mirrors. The beam can be guided in two dimensions to any point on the processing area by changing the angle of the mobile mirrors. In other words, the laser beam is deflected by two motor-driven mirrors before it reaches the surface of the workpiece. In this way, contour programs are welded at a constant process speed with RPFO while the robot velocity can vary. The new welding application from KUKA Roboter has the advantage that it can be used to weld very tight radii with any desired pattern. High process speed and system-related short robot paths allow the welding of short seams “on the fly”. This results in short cycle times.

KUKA team players and partners

It’s not only KUKA robots that are good team players. KUKA complements its own product portfolio with the technologies of its successful partner companies, guaranteeing its customers the best possible solution. As one of the leading suppliers of industrial robots, KUKA Roboter concentrates on its own development competencies and turns its robots into real welding experts by joining forces with the relevant partner company. Thus for solutions in the fields of laser welding, arc welding and spot welding, for example, KUKA Roboter collaborates with the laser supplier Trumpf, the arc welding equipment manufacturer Fronius, and Schneider Electric/ Square D for the integrated spot weld controller.

About KUKA Roboter GmbH
KUKA Roboter GmbH, Augsburg, is a member of the IWKA Aktiengesellschaft Group (Karlsruhe) and ranks among the world’s leading suppliers of industrial robots. Core competencies are the development, production and sale of industrial robots, controllers, software and linear units. The company is the market leader in Germany and Europe, and the number three in the world. The KUKA Robot Group employs about 2,000 people worldwide. Of these, 1,200 are employed in Germany, either at the KUKA Robot Group headquarters in Augsburg, or at various subsidiaries. In 2005, sales totaled 324 million euro. Over 20 subsidiaries provide a presence in the rest of Europe, the US and Asia.
Date of publication

23/10/2006

Any questions? We would be happy to help
KUKA Robot Group
Head of Communications
Jürgen Schulze-Ferebee
Tel.: +49 821 4533–3318
presse@kuka.com
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