Published by: Welding Productivity – July 2021
By: Soroush Karimzadeh, CEO and co-founder, Novarc Technologies
The manufacturing challenge of improving productivity while maintaining quality and keeping costs in check affects every industry, and welding is no exception. Novarc Technologies created their collaborative welding robot, the Spool Welding Robot (SWR), to automate the welding process in order to improve productivity on the shop floor and reduce costs for the pipe fabrication shop.
The SWR uses a floating long-reach manipulator with a 3-axis robotic arm at the end that works with an operator to increase their dexterity and flexibility. It is designed specifically for pipe, small pressure vessel and other types of roll welding, and is capable of welding flanges, Ts, elbows, reducers and more.
Implementation of the SWR has shown a three to five times increase in pipe welding productivity, potentially allowing the cobot’s capital cost to be recovered in an average of six to 18 months. Even with this outcome – and impressive results like that at Vancouver Drydock, where productivity was increased by more than 400 percent using the SWR – Novarc continued to undertake further research to develop ways to expand the capabilities of the SWR for pipe fabrication shops.
The result was the development of new SWR+HyperFill technology, which increases heavy fabrication productivity by increasing weld deposition rates while delivering excellent weld quality. Read More…
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