PROGRAMMING A ROBOTIC CELL APPLIED TO THE WELDING ACCESSORIES TO PRESSURIZED STEEL TANKS

Abstract

Welded steel tanks are pressure containers whose function is to store a pressure fluid. Nowadays, industrial robots develop a very important work in the industry, and especially in welding systems. The automation of welding processes has many advantages. However, reprogramming of the control system to change production models remains difficult and requires a lot of time. The objective of this work is to develop a methodology to reprogram the control system of a robot welding in a simple and quick way for a considerable time saving. To do this, from the definition of the layout of the welding cell , a method to systematize the process of obtaining the programs has been developed so that the robot cell perform the welding process of the elements connected to the ferrule of the tank. The method consists in the definition of a structured data with a geometric description of the tank and the parameters of the welding process. The method adds the calculated data to a file using several computer programs that allow the robot cell perform welding paths. These data are the points and orientations of the end effector and robot coordinates joint obtained by the Denavit - Hartenberg method. The generated data file is then loaded into the simulation environment of the robot to verify the paths and make corrections. Once validated the simulation program, the robot program is generated and automated welding is performed. The programs have been generated in a parameterized way, so changing them is simple and quick.