African Fusion March 2017

26 / 40

24 AFRICAN FUSION March 2017
Yaskawa robotic spot welding cell
The success of an idea comes from
an approach that undermines
tradition. Yaskawa, sure of the
high quality of its products, took this
approach to go beyond robots and to
create a complete spot welding solu-
tion that has revamped the company’s
automotive and vehicle-manufacturing
offering.
Today, Yaskawa is able to design,
build, install and service robot-based
production cells that meet the highest
standards in terms of technology and
innovation. The company’s new spot
welding solution is a fully integrated
welding system with a positioner and
The non-
pneumatic
spot welding
guns consist
of only three
components:
the gun body, a
transformer and
the motor.
The nut-welding system can be attached to
the right or left of the spot welding cell with
a dedicated handling robot (MH5) attached
to the side structure.
Yaskawa has developed a compact and flexible system for
high-speed robot-based spot welding. The modular solu-
tion comprises a cell with positioner and two spot
welding robots; particularly lightweight spotweld-
ing guns; a nut welding machine and a full range
of accessories.
Modern industrial spot
welding solutions
onboard robots. It is availablewith small
welding robots (MS and VS Series), Yas-
kawa’s light welding gun, alongwith jigs
and a nut-welding machine.
The innovation is aholistic approach
to spot welding, one that focuses on
solving problems rather than supplying
individually branded products.
The advantages of thismodern spot
welding solution for users include:
• The compact footprint: space sav-
ings up to 40% can be achieved.
• Full control of the solution, thanks
to all of the tooling and equipment
coming from a single source, ie,
Yaskawa.
• Improved accessibility to the parts
being welded.
• Easy to move: the system is on a
common base making it a single
moveable machine.
• Easy to install: very little set-up time
by the customer is required and
there is no re-teaching requirement
once the system arrives on site.
• Easy to programwith an ergonomic
working position for the operator.
• Flexible concept: The system is 100%
flexible and 100% customisable.
• The onboard robot at the front can
easily load the item without inter-
ference.
• It is faster than ever, giving savings
with respect to cycle time.
At the start of the ordering process for
a Yaskawa spot welding system is a
turnkey design and selection process,
starting with the analysis of the specifi-
cations. Pre-design and drafting of the
proposal then proceeds, followed by
the layout of a solution and simulation
of its use.
The process takes full advantage
of lean manufacturing and traceability
to give the shortest production times
possible. Following line assembly and
installation, the system will be inspect-
ed, tested and commissioned. Ongoing
maintenance and spares are also avail-
ableworldwide, to ensure reliability and
minimum downtime.
Spot welding gun range
The new range of spot welding guns for
the system was developed to be excep-
tionally lightweight. Carefully designed
down to the smallest detail, these en-