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Fixturing for Robotic Welding Productivity

Design Objectives for Robotic Welding Fixtures

By Geoff Lipnevicius, Engineering Manager Automation Division, The Lincoln Electric Company

While robotic welding can vastly improve productivity over semiautomatic welding, the level of efficiency of automation depends upon the
thoughtful design of the fixturing for maximum productivity.

Robotic welding is economical when properly applied, but it can be terribly

inefficient and cost-prohibitive when simple fixture design considerations are
overlooked. Many productivity gains are realized, or lost, at the design
stage and while parts fixturing performs a role that is simple, good fixture
design is critical to the success of a robotic welding system.

When beginning a new project for robotic arc welding, consider these fixture
design objectives:

Choose Your Fixture Material Wisely

Optimize the Welding Circuit
Orient the Fixture to Maximize Deposition Rates
Strive for Accessibility, Repeatability, Simplicity, and Dependability
Consider Alternatives when Fixture Design Costs are Prohibitive

Choose Your Fixture Material Wisely

For the purposes of this discussion, the reference to fixturing is specific to the custom designed device used to locate or support the work
piece during the welding operation. Often used as interchangeable terms, 'tooling' is usually reserved for a specific device designed to form,
compress, or shape.

One of the first steps in designing a robotic welding fixture is to choose the
fixture base-metal. Factors include initial cost, long-term maintenance costs,
and special characteristics particularly suited to the robotic welding
application, such ad the critical aspect of maintaining accuracy and part
repeatability in an environment exposed to elevated heat and weld spatter.

Common material options include mild steel, high-carbon tool steel,

aluminum, stainless steel, and copper. Various alloys of the common base
materials are available to improve work hardening, and wear resistance
properties. Each material has different characteristics that can impact
productivity and quality.

Initial cost considerations promote the use of square / rectangular structural

steel tubing for a majority of the framework of the fixture. From a wear
resistance standpoint, fixture hard stops and locating points are often made
of alloyed high-carbon tool steel in an effort to resist deformation. Another
commonly sourced wear resistant alloy, aluminum-bronze, work hardens
and is not as prone to residual magnetism when compared to tool steel.

Pure copper is generally avoided

when the consideration is
hardness, yet it is the best
all-around material for electrical
conductivity. Electrical conductivity
is critical for arc welding stability, a
desirable aspect that is necessary
to achieve maximum travel
speeds. For this reason, alloys of
copper and zinc (brass), or copper
and tungsten carbide may be
sourced to improve the wear

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resistance of copper. Novice fixture-builders sometimes overlook the electrical conductivity aspect
and paint all surfaces, including the bolted work cable connection surface, which is the source of
immediate start-up troubleshooting problems.

The thermal conductivity properties of aluminum and copper are high, referring to the ability of each
of these materials to conduct heat. For these reasons, these materials are often used as heat sinks
to conduct heat away from the work piece and 'spread' the heat over a larger surface area to
minimize work piece distortion. In a robotic welding system, thermal expansion properties should
also be considered. Thermal expansion refers to the fractional change in length of a material for a
unit of change in temperature. Aluminum has the capacity to significantly change in length and
volume when heated. For this reason, copper is more commonly used for heat sinks, and aluminum
is typically avoided in an effort to strive for part repeatability. Work piece sub-assemblies can also be
physically arranged and programmed with advanced welding processes, designed for low heat-input,
to minimize welding distortion tendencies.

Optimize the Welding Circuit

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Refined welding waveforms require an optimized welding circuit to maintain short arc lengths while reducing spatter, stubbing, arc-flare, and
arc outages, all in an effort to maximize travel speeds.

Special care must be taken to identify the optimum location of the work lead on the robotic welding fixture. As a general rule, it is desirable to
locate the work cable and sense lead (if applicable), as close to the welding arc as possible, rather than indirectly through a series of bolted
connections. In the optimum scenario, connection directly to the work piece is preferred.

Connection provisions on the fixture to insure that the work cable and sense lead are separated from each other, and from any robotic or
welding communication cables insure the best results. When more than one power source is welding simultaneously on a single part, each
power source requires a work lead from the work stud to the work piece. Avoid combining all of the work leads into one lead to reduce the
arc interference and induced magnetism, otherwise known as arc blow.

At this point, also consider the anticipated welding travel directions, with the preference to move in the direction away from the work lead, as
shown. Connect all of the work sense leads from each power source to the work piece at the opposite end.

Orient the Fixture to Maximize Deposition Rates

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Next, examine how your fixtures position the work relative to a vertical orientation to take advantage of the force of gravity. When welding a
part in the flat position, gravity is an ally. The finished welds are flat, uniform, and more easily made with higher deposition rates, that directly
increase travel speeds and productivity.

When sheet metal applications are designed with lap or 'T' joints, simple positioning of the part to allow a 15-degree downhill torch motion
can result in travel speed increases of 10 - 25 percent, by using gravity as an ally and the fast-follow characteristics of many consumable /
gas combinations.

Welding overhead may be appealing to reduce or eliminate weld spatter from sticking to the part, however, the spatter will inevitably stick to
the exposed surface of the fixture and tooling, requiring long-term maintenance attention. Welding overhead also requires overcoming the
force of gravity. Deposition rates are lower and it is more difficult to maintain proper weld contours.

Strive for Accessibility, Repeatability, Simplicity and Dependability

There are many clamping / locating options to choose from when you approach a fixture at the design stage. The least complex involves
simple manual clamping such as swing, push, or plunger clamps applied to a fixed or stationary table and are typically applied for short-run or
prototype parts. In an R&D or short-run setting, these are very simple, low-cost methods to locate a part. The labor intensive nature of
manual clamping is overcome by flexibility and versatility in these settings. Modular fixturing is a secondary option that provides benefits of
flexibility while maintaining dimensional control.

On the other end of the spectrum, the more complex applications might
involve a dedicated fixture. These fixture installations are more complicated
with higher initial costs, and frequently involve the installation and routing of
wiring, and pneumatic or hydraulic lines. Advantages of automatic clamping
include the reduction or elimination of labor involvement for actuation, part
proximity sensing, and sequenced clamping.

Another fixture design alternative involves retrofitting or repurposing an

existing semiautomatic fixture, but this alternative must be approached with
caution. In a semi-automatic application, the operator often makes
adjustments, on-the-fly, to accommodate variation in joint location and
geometry. When a robot is applied to the same fixture, any part movement
dooms the assembly to the reject bin. If the fixture is predominantly
dedicated to fillet and lap welds, the fixture can normally be reused,
however outside corner welds and square butt joints often require serious
enhancements to the existing fixture to maintain repeatability.

In each of these options, a variety of additional objectives must be

considered. For example, the fixture should be designed to operate at an
ergonomic height and reach and without the need for operator force during loading and unloading. Sufficient torch accessibility and visual

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clearance, supplemented by adequate lighting, should be an emphasis. Fixture surfaces are ideally designed to minimize flat surfaces to avoid
the collection of welding spatter from interfering with critical locating surfaces or actuating components.

The objective of the integration of the fixture and clamping / locating device
is to insure that the weld joint location repeats, in a 3-dimensional space
relative to the system, within +/- half the diameter of the applied welding
wire. For example, using 0.045" diameter wire allows a tolerance of +/-
0.022".

Gap location and width must be consistent from part to part, with the same
tolerances as the weld joint location. Beyond plus or minus half the diameter
of the wire thickness, the weld size may be required to be increased to
offset the smaller weld throat that results. A larger weld may require 125 -
200% more weld metal than required if proper fit-up is maintained.

Obtaining good fit-up is critical to controlling costs. In order to obtain a good

fit-up consistently, emphasis must also be placed on preconditioning
operations such as cutting / shearing, machining, heat treating, and bending
/ forming processes.

Consider Alternatives when Fixture Design Costs are Prohibitive

There are times when it is too expensive to manufacture parts to tight
tolerances, or impractical to present a large fabrication to a robot fixture,
within thousandths of an inch. Small part runs may also prohibit the application of some fixturing options. In these cases, low-cost software
sensory technology such as Touch Sensing or Through-The-Arc Seam Tracking can be employed to overcome deficiencies in a part or fixture.

In the application of Touch Sensing, the robot is programmed to touch the

welding wire to a number of locations on the fabrication to identify the part
location and orientation. With this information a master program can be
3-dimensionally shifted to match-up with the new part orientation.

Through-the-Arc Seam Tracking is another option that can be enabled once the
robot begins welding - the robot weaves across the weld joint and modifies its
path based on any joint location shift, perhaps due to distortion or part
spring-back, for example.

Other complex sensing and tracking methods include laser-based vision

systems.

Summary

Robotic welding is economical when properly applied, but it can be terribly

inefficient and cost-prohibitive when simple fixture design considerations are
overlooked. Many productivity gains are realized, or lost, at the design stage
and while parts fixturing performs a role that is simple, it is critical to the success
of a system. Consider basic fixture design objectives to improve the productivity
of your robotic welding system.

Article Index

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