Siouxland Fabricating successfully deployed a UR10 cobot on a high mix/low volume stamping application, in which the cobot picks a part, places it in a stamping machine, actuates the machine, and then palletizes the finished part. Based on these positive cobot experiences, it was a small step for Siouxland Fabricating to ask “Can we stick a welding arm on the end of our UR robot and make it weld?”

“Traditional welding robots require a lot of fixturing, programming, and a lot of tweaking between our robotic programmer and our welder. And it also takes a lot of floor space. We were looking for something that was simple that we could quickly integrate in the shop and start making parts,” says Toby Boogerd, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at Siouxland Fabricating, noting that the price of traditional welding robots was also a significant deterrent and that Siouxland Fabricating wanted its welders to spend more time fabricating and putting parts together and less time laying beads. “We really wanted the robot to mimic what a hand-welder was capable of doing, from circular welds to butt joints.”

“Traditionally, we would just do two or three passes on welding because we didn’t understand how to use some of those more advanced features,” says Boogerd. “But having used the UR robot, we’re able to use the weaving feature, which cuts cycle time in half. It also saves on consumables since we’re not laying all that extra gas and bead.” Weld Robot Supervisor Van DeKamp adds: “That was awesome. I now pulse and weave on probably seven different programs, which has helped drastically. I have also taken the advanced welds I have learned on the UR robot and put them on our traditional robots too.”

The BotX Welder deployment has freed up workers to focus on more ergonomic, higher-value tasks such as fabricating and tacking, while the robot lays the bead. “In the end, you see more production going out the door because I can have the robot working without an operator having to babysit it,” says Boogerd. Given the success of its BotX deployment, Siouxland plans to add another welding cobot to its fleet, says Boogerd: “We have the traditional UR10 robot and the BotX welding robot. And we’ve seen the advantages and production just keeps increasing. And, instead of having to hire more people, we can utilize that time with the robots.” The company also plans to test its stamping cobot on machine tending tasks involving CNC machines, mills and lathes with a view to adding more cobots to that side of its business too.