AMET Automation Solutions 1 inc. ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIES AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS FOR COMPLEX WELDING APPLICATIONS Don Schwemmer (AMET inc.) “DSP” Based Control and Power Supply Products TOPICS WELDING AUTOMATION BASICS - REASONS FOR AUTOMATION - AUTOMATION CONSIDERATIONS - AUTOMATED SYSTEM COMPONENTS CONTROLS & MONITORING, INTERFACE, FIXTURING & TOOLING, SENSORS - SUCCESSFUL IMPLIMENTATION OF WELDING AUTOMATION APPLICATIONS - NUCLEAR SUBARC - WINDTOWER SUBARC - TANDEM GMA - GMA VALVE WELDING APPLICATIONS - HOT WIRE CLADDING - HOT WIRE GTA - MULTI-PROCESS - MULTI-TORCH GTA SUMMARY
Transcript
AMET Automation Solutions
1
inc.
ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIES
AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS FOR
COMPLEX WELDING
APPLICATIONS
Don Schwemmer (AMET inc.)
“DSP” Based Control and Power Supply Products
TOPICS
WELDING AUTOMATION BASICS - REASONS FOR AUTOMATION
- AUTOMATION CONSIDERATIONS - AUTOMATED SYSTEM COMPONENTS
CONTROLS & MONITORING, INTERFACE,
FIXTURING & TOOLING, SENSORS - SUCCESSFUL IMPLIMENTATION OF WELDING
AUTOMATION
APPLICATIONS
- NUCLEAR SUBARC
- WINDTOWER SUBARC
- TANDEM GMA
- GMA VALVE WELDING APPLICATIONS
- HOT WIRE CLADDING
- HOT WIRE GTA
- MULTI-PROCESS
- MULTI-TORCH GTA
SUMMARY
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Reasons for AutomationCost Benefits for
Automation in Light Alloy and High StrengthWelding Systems
•Consistant Quality of Final Product
•Cost of Base Material
•Typical Quality Acceptance Requirement
•Value of As-Welded Component
•Large Number of Parts to Make
•Productivity increase from faster setups, typically fasterweld speeds, elimination of welder fatigue
•Consistency better than from a number of welders
Cost Analysis
Several Important Costsare Relatively Easy toQuantify
•Equipment Costs
•Labor Costs
•Training
•Material & Consumable Costs
•Inspection
Some Important Costs areNot So Easy
•Repair
•Customer Acceptance
•Performance Reputation
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Costing An Automated Welding System
How much automation do you need? (From Pro-Fusion Web Site)Basic Parameters:
Operator and skilled welder salaries vary somewhat according to geographic location. The basic assumptions used in the calculations
below are as follows:Work hours per year: 2000 (40hours/week x 50 weeks/year)
Manual Welder Costs
Average welder pay: $16.00/hour (ranged from $14.00/hr - $18.00/hr)Actual welder cost to employer: $24.00/hour = $48,000/year(1.5 x hourly rate for overhead, vacation,, holidays,sick time, social security, unemployment taxes, insurance, etc.)
Operator Costs
Average operator pay: $10.00/hour (ranged from $8.00/hr - $ 12.00/hr)Actual cost to employer: $15.00/hour = $30,000/year
(1.5 x hourly rate for overhead)
The table below gives a simple example of calculations for return on investment based on equipment and labor costs alone. For a fullanalysis of actual costs the following must also be considered:
Actual Equipment Cost Labor Rates Production Welding Speeds Possible Supervisory CostsPersonal Management Quality Control Costs Reject & Scrap Costs Customer Relations
Manual Welding Semi-Automatic System Automatic System
Number of systems required for equal output 8x 4x 1xIndividual system cost $5,000 $30,000 $190,000
Individual operator cost/year - $30,000 $30,000Labor cost/year for = volume of output(1-8 hour shift) $384,000 $120,000 $30,000Labor & equipment costs for one year $424,000 $240,000 $220,000
(1 - 8 hour shift)Labor & equipment costs for one year $808,000 $360,000 $250,000
(2 - 8 hour shifts)With sufficient production requirements, the choice for automated welding becomes obvious based on labor rates alone. The usual
question is how much to automate.
Reasons for AutomationOther Important Considerations for
Automated Welding Systems
•Availability of Skilled Welders
•Complexity of Welding Process
•Hot Wire / Variable Polarity / Multiple Torch
•Criticality of Parts - Costs of Repair
•Consistency between different part types asautomation maintains process experience (most)Quality
•Consistency Improvements
•Demanding / Changing Requirements
•Safety
•Operator
•Environment / Access
•Customer
•Litigation / Process Verification
•Improvements in Welding AutomationPerformance Features,and Reliability
The ranks of welders, brazers andsolderers—whose jobs all are essentially to join
pieces of metal—dropped to 576,000 in 2005, a
10% decline compared with 2000, according tothe federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
American Welding Society, an industry group,
predicts that by 2010 demand for skilled weldersmay outstrip supply by about 200,000
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Automation
Considerations• REASONS TO BE CAUTIOUS ABOUT
AUTOMATION– Garbage in - Garbage out
• Automation like computers requires attention toconsistency
– Parts - Setup - Tooling
• Remember for WELDING APPLICATIONS there aremany process factors that current automated systemstypically don’t control or can’t account for:
- THERE IS ALWAYS A HUMAN ELEMENT– Joint fit-up
– Material chemistry / Joint cleanliness
– Wire cleanliness
– Electrode / Torch condition - Arc efficiency
– Gas / Coolant Cleanliness - Leak Tightness
– Part fit-up in tooling - heat sinking
– Torch / Part set-up (relative positions of electrode / wire / part)
– What about Sensors and “Adaptive Control”
• Despite the advancements in Sensor TechnologyAutomation cannot, and for many applications, shouldnot replace the Human Element
AUTOMATION CONTROLAUTOMATION CONTROL REQUIREMENTS
! Basic Control Parameters! Weld Current / Voltage - One or Muliple Supplies
! Pulsation
! Part / Torch Motion and Position
! Coordinated motion for spiral, tapered bore, andintersecting bore cladding
! Jog offset / override
! Multi-pass for thick sections
! Synchronized with pulsation
! Wire Feed Speed
! Synchronized with Pulsation / Oscillation
! Hot Wire Voltage / Current
! Arc Voltage Control
! Advanced Control Parameters! Magnetic Oscillation
! Synchronization capability
! Mechanical Oscillation
! Synchronization capability
! Hot Wire Frequency
! Wire Nozzle Position
! Sensor Integration! Joint Tracking
! Inter-pass Temperature
! Independent Part Position
! Gap Measurement
! Override Capability
! Video Monitoring / Recording
! Process Monitoring / Data Acquisition
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Automation Control
Architecture Options
Computer
•Device
•Sensor
•Device
•Overhead
Free-time
•Device
•Sensor
•Device
•Sensor
• Polling
•A single computer is used to control and/or
monitor each welding device or sensor. The
computer’s time is therefore split between
each of the total number of tasks
•The processor spends some time with
each task and then cycles to the next task.
The device is not monitored until the
computer returns back to the device or
sensor. The control and monitoring is
‘Asynchronous’ since only one task is being
addressed at one time.
•As more tasks are added, or the tasks
become more complex, the processor must
perform more operations per cycle so the
total time to address all tasks increases and
the total control and monitoring cycles per
minute is reduced.
•Gas
•Sensor
ADVANTAGES
- “Can” be cost effective due to the higher
cost of computers and microprocessors
DISADVANTAGES
- Very Difficult to Expand. Requires more
hardware and usually significant software
- Different software for different configurations
- Difficult to implement or upgrade to new
operating systems
- Control cycles are reduced as more tasks are
added or more processing is required for a
given task
- Asynchronous communication
•Current
•Overhead
Free-time
•AVC
•Sensor
•Travel
•Sensor
Computer
Automation Control
Architecture Options
• Polling
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•Distributed - A Modular Control Architecture
Multiple processors, Micro-processors or DSP’s, are used to control and/or monitor
each welding device or sensor. Each processor is dedicated to each task and each
processor communicates with the other processors over a network (much the same
as the network connecting each person in a company dedicated to their individual
task).
Since the clocks on each processor can synchronized, the control and monitoring of
all tasks is synchronous.
Since a processor is added with each task, the processing capability of the system is
never compromised as load increases.
Sensor
Computer
Current Travel Wire AVC
Sensor
DSPDSP DSP
DSP
Automation Control
Architecture Options
DSP TECHNOLOGY
FOR WELDING
• Welding Control is signal processing
• DSP’s are optimized for
high speed, real-time
signal processing.
• DSP’s are the fastest
growing segment of the
signal processing market
• DSP’s are used in cell phones,
internet appliances, industrial motion controls, etc.
Sensor
Computer
Current Travel Wire AVC
Sensor
DSPDSP DSP
DSP
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AUTOMATION INTERFACEThe system displays, pendants, knobs and
buttons make up the system interface.
The Interface is a very important consideration as
it affects how effective program instructions,
overrides, process information and data are
communicated between user and welding
system.
Data Acquisition, & Process
Monitoring
• Data Acquisition is necessary when either processcharacterization or process verification is desired.
• Data Acquisition is the collection of the welding data. DSP’s aredesigned to perform this at very high rates. High-speed data isnecessary to accurately characterize the process.
• Process Monitoring is the analysis of the welding data todetermine that the process was performed as programmed.
• The results of the analyzed data, which is significantly lessdata, can then be transported via the network for printing,storage, etc. as a record of process performance.
• Integrated data acquisition offers the advantage of being ableto compare the acquired data with the programmed set point.
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Process
Monitoring• Today’s high speed “real-time” sampling, processing and
analysis of welding data can be an invaluable tool. The highspeed analysis of the data can ensure that the process ismonitored at a high rate but the data can be statisticallyevaluated to reduce the overall data for review and storage.
• Data can be analyzed in real-time to determine:– Weld current pulsation and AC performance
– Out-of-Tolerance Magnitudes, Positions, and Durations.
• This important and powerful capability allows the data to bepre-processed as the welding is being performed so that onlysignificant and relevant “processed” data needs to berecorded.
Fixturing and
Tooling
• Fixturing typically represents the mechanicalportion of the welding system responsible formotion as well as torch and part support.
• Tooling usually represents mechanicalcomponents that support or position a specificpart.
• Precision fixturing and tooling are critical tominimizing positioning variances. Part totorch positioning error is the sum of the partand tooling tolerances combined with anypositioning error in the motion fixture.
• It is also important to control toolingtolerances relative to part tolerances as the“fit” between the two can certainly affect thethermal transfer (heat sinking) and theresulting weldment
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SENSORS
• Laser Systems– Position / Volume / Orientation
– Strippers / Circular
• Tactile Tracking Systems
• Mechanically Scanned Laser– Laser position feedback as a function
of laser cross-seam position
– Closed Loop Position Control
– Single-point proximity laser
– Determines feature vs. cross seamposition
– Allows programmed offset fromidentified feature by pass
– Allows operator offset from identifiedfeature
– Can identify root gaps and modifycontrol setpoints
SENSORS
TEMPERATURE SENSORS
• Optical Pyrometers– Inter-pass temperature control
LIGHT SENSORS
• Photodiodes– Position / penetration control
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AUTOMATION
SYSTEM DESIGN• Establish Requirements, Develop Concepts, Model Concepts, Fabricate and Test
Successful
Automation
Implementation
1. Plan - Review and list your needs (short and long term), your restrictions,and develop a specification. Provide all the information you can, partdrawings, weld requirements, space layouts, etc. It’s worth the effort.
2. Identify an individual at your facility that will have overall implementationresponsibility.
3. Evaluate potential suppliers, visit their facilities, and contact their customers.Your are usually making a significant purchase that requires a mutuallybeneficial long term relationship for success.
4. Understand and clarify the responsibilities of the supplier for the equipmentand yours for the process.
5. Obtain, review, and approve concept drawings and models before systemfabrication so it is clear what will be provided.
6. Communicate and review during fabrication.
7. Develop a test plan that will test your expectations prior to shipment.
8. Develop a training plan for both operation and basic maintenance.
9. Buy and stock identified critical spare parts.
10. Maintain and care for your equipment, your investment.
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SAW Wind Tower
Systems
Tandem Wire SAW Systems
Integrated Meta Laser sensors for
joint location and adaptive fill
AMET 6m x 4m HD Manipulator
Continuous Rotating Head
Cladding Systems - 3Meter
Diameter Bores
Complex Intersecting Bore Welding SystemsHot Wire Cladding for VERY LARGE Subsea Oil
and Gas Components
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Automated Cladding Systems
Complex Intersecting Bore Welding SystemsHot Wire Cladding for Complex Subsea Oil and
Gas Components
Automated Cladding Systems
for RADIUS Bore Blocks
Complex Intersecting Bore Welding SystemsHot Wire Cladding for Complex Subsea Oil and
Gas Components
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Custom Welding
Systems
Twin Torch Lathes
Synchronized Twin Drive Lathes
Continuous Rotating Heads
Compact Internal Track Heads
Chamber Systems
Dual Station Systems
Ultimate Lathe
Welding Systems
Twin Torch Lathes
Synchronized Twin Drive
GMA, PLASMA, GTA
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Tandem GMA - AC for
Aluminum Armor
High Strength Aluminum Alloy
- Armor Application
Robotic Application
Sensor Integration
- Lead/Trail Wire Align
Tandem Wire Control
Automated Seam
Welding Systems
GTA - Plasma
Variable Polarity
Horizontal and Vertical
Single and Dual Torch
Precision Seamers for
Stainless Steel and
Aluminum Tank
Applications
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SUMMARY
• CONTROL HARDWARE / SOFTWARE AND SENSOR INTEGRATION ARE EXPANDING THE
CAPABILITIES OF ALL PROCESSES, INCLUDING GTA HOT WIRE, GMA, AND SUBARC TO BE
EFFECTIVELY USED FOR APPLICATIONS WITH DIFFICULT GEOMETRIES AND CRITICAL MATERIAL
PROPERTY REQUIREMENTS.
• SOPHISTICATED, MODULAR, NETWORKED BASED SYSTEMS THAT CAN PRODUCE OUTSTANDING
WELDS FOR COMPLEX WELDING OPERATIONS, INCLUDING INTERSECTING BORES, MULTI-PASS
THICK SECTION NARROW GROOVE, AND TAPERED BORES ARE MORE AVAILABLE AND PROVEN
THAN EVER. THESE SYSTEMS ARE HAVE PROVEN SIGNIFICANT PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY
IMPROVEMENTS OVER MANUAL OR SEMI-AUTOMATED PROCESSES
• SUCCESSFUL AUTOMATION IMPLEMENTATION AND BENEFIT RESULTS FROM A “TEAM” EFFORT
FROM BOTH SUPPLIER AND END USER.
• SUBSTAINTIAL IMPROVEMENTS INAUTOMATION CONTROLS, PRECISIONFIXTURING, AND SENSORS ALLOW FORAUTOMATION BENEFITS TO BE OBTAINEDFOR A BROADER RANGE OF APPLICATIONS.
