The Welding Industry At-A-Glance

Large and complex metal products in construction and heavy industries are fabricated partially by semi-automatic welding machines and largely by the intensive labor of expert welders. Robots repeatedly perform welding operations efficiently and accurately with a consistent level of quality. They are designed to carryout tasks that would otherwise be difficult or dangerous for expert welders. Widespread use of welding automation is currently implemented only for simple and repetitive fabrication, while in one-off and small batch production it barely exists.

The Challenge

Robots must be programmed in order to act. Robot programming for one-off and small batch production is both complex and extremely time consuming; this has made production automation uneconomical and therefore irrelevant.

The Promise

SmartTCP can weld any weldable, large, complex assembly that fits within the predefined three dimensional working envelope, even if it is the "first time seen". After downloading the execution programming file to the controller of the welding robot cell, SmartTCP analyzes the 3D CAD file of a structure's final assembly drawing as though it were through the eyes of an expert welder. It will then implement the most sophisticated welding and robot technologies. All this is done automatically and in a very short time.

© 2010 SmartTCP Inc.