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RESEARCH & INNOVATION
keeping IIW interest high in this expanding area, two stalwarts of IIW, Granjon and Boyd,
wrote a distinguished book,
Automation and Robotisation in Welding and Allied Processes
,
published by IIW through Pergamon Press in 1985. By 2005 around 120 000 robots were
being used in the USA with approximately half of them being used for welding.
22
The previously mentioned process of friction stir welding also found
increasing application in robotic welding in both the automotive and aviation
industries as an innovative technology for the welding of aluminium and
its alloys.
23
As well as more exotic techniques, such as laser and electron
beam welding, the number of arc welding automatic robot stations increased
significantly as the new century dawned, with gas tungsten arc welding
(GTAW) (also known as tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding) and gas metal arc
welding (GMAW) (sometimes referred to as metal inert gas (MIG) welding
or metal active gas (MAG) welding) being well suited to robot systems and
their ability to produce high quality welds.
All of this has led to a change of emphasis for many involved in the ways of using
modern technology in the design of welding equipment and the adaption of these new
techniques in industry. Today, the computer has become a tool used for achieving these
purposes and therefore has given rise to a new generation of scientists involved in what
is now recognised as a multi-disciplinary approach for the development of new welding
processes. This development heralded a new century of information technology, which
required special emphasis on how best to utilise the intrinsic properties of mechanical and
electronic components in combination with computer control.
24
In his Houdremont Lecture,
Increased use of robotic welding in the automotive industry