They took our (welding) jerbs!

[scooby074]

Millers new all in one welding Cobot. Not for DIYers ($100,000), but for industry looking to add automation its pretty cool. Way of the future for some production welding operations. Can't hire a welder? Get a robot. The programming is slick (common for Cobots).

Copilot | MillerWelds

www.millerwelds.com

 

[Zewnten]

I agree it's a good idea. In my experience too many shops can't program a cnc machine correctly, how will welders who think an adjustable is a hammer figure this out?

 

[neophyte]

I agree it's a good idea. In my experience too many shops can't program a cnc machine correctly, how will welders who think an adjustable is a hammer figure this out?

 

[Firebrick43]

I had to maintain and touch up robots for the last 18 years. Mostly ABB large robots in the 80-220 kg capacity.

As long as people didn’t do something stupid they were pretty good.

The last 2 years the company I worked for had 3 UR cobots.

They loaded tubes into CNC lathes.

They didn’t replace an operator, they just freed them to inspect parts more thoroughly and bring in/out tubs.

They were a nightmare. To make them “safe” the joints had very sensitive force sensors in case a human bumped them they would stop.

They were constantly in need of adjustment and it wasn’t uncommon to need a replacement of at least on joint every 6 to 9 months. I thought the cobots were a FJ. They kept me raking in the money however. It’s good when no one else has any desire to work or learn something new.

Caged robots may not allow work side by side with a human but they are so much more robust and faster. They have had welding robots for 40 years now.

 

[alfadan]

I had to maintain and touch up robots for the last 18 years. Mostly ABB

I imagine with anything ABB, there was A LOT of maintaining!

 

[BarrelRoll]

I've been saying for years learn to fix or design automation or get automated out of a job.

I work in mining, automated haul trucks are coming down the pipeline. When it costs $500k a year to keep a body in a seat 24-7 automation has a pretty short ROI. It's not a good time to bank on spending 30 years in a haul truck. It's a great time to get into mechanics, they are only getting more and more complex. Unfortunately most lifetime haul truck driver's aren't exactly programed to transition into fixing them.

The ROI on that machine is pretty short in a job shop with multi part runs. $100k is about 2 years of salary for a mid level welder. I see this robot being treated similar to a horizontal band saw in a shop cutting a bunch of pieces, every time you walk by you restart it. The longer the job the more benefit especially when they talk about arc on time compared to a human.

 

[Firebrick43]

I imagine with anything ABB, there was A LOT of maintaining!

No they were quite durable and low maintenance. In the larger 220 kg one I have only replaced 1 arm joint in 18 years. The smaller robots they had really cranked and joints 1,4,5 and 6 (4,5,6 are the same motor) I had to change several dozen of those after they were 10 plus years old.

Controller wise they were pretty good until they got 15 plus years on them and they started doing funky things.

Personally had more issues with the few fanuc robots we had.

They weren’t anything like the **** from Schnieder electric that the for some baffling reason bought them out.

 

[alfadan]

15 years sounds about right. I don't have a high opinion of their electronics.

 

[scooby074]

I had to maintain and touch up robots for the last 18 years. Mostly ABB large robots in the 80-220 kg capacity.

As long as people didn’t do something stupid they were pretty good.

The last 2 years the company I worked for had 3 UR cobots.

They loaded tubes into CNC lathes.

They didn’t replace an operator, they just freed them to inspect parts more thoroughly and bring in/out tubs.

They were a nightmare. To make them “safe” the joints had very sensitive force sensors in case a human bumped them they would stop.

They were constantly in need of adjustment and it wasn’t uncommon to need a replacement of at least on joint every 6 to 9 months. I thought the cobots were a FJ. They kept me raking in the money however. It’s good when no one else has any desire to work or learn something new.

Caged robots may not allow work side by side with a human but they are so much more robust and faster. They have had welding robots for 40 years now.

Its the Cobot aspect that I thought was interesting. That and it was a turnkey solution.

Need more bodies? A phonecall and $100k and you got yourself a *welder* !

Miller even handed the software and support. Made in Wisconsin by Miller, which is pretty neat.

I have a little experience working with traditional arm style caged robots and theyre pretty solidly made. Problems were rare. Theyd break your neck in a second if you got too close (past the fence) though.

I wasnt aware that the Cobot's safety systems caused so many issues but it makes sense. Ive never worked with one . You got to dial the speed and force back so much so they dont squash the meatbags I guess lol. Cant have the Cobot's running amok.

 

[WWheeler]

We have dozens of tig welding robots at work of all sizes. They've been used on this production line for at least 20 years now and stay running 24/7 except for downtime and scheduled preventative maintenance.

 

[scooby074]

Guys we all know welding robots are a thing since forever.

The interesting thing here is the Cobot aspect. Ease of teaching and no guarding required (other than for flash). Short lead time to add production capacity and the ability to quickly adapt and program for small product runs..

Being made and supported in house by Miller is pretty cool too.

 

[BarrelRoll]

Need more bodies? A phonecall and $100k and you got yourself a *welder* !

Miller even handed the software and support. Made in Wisconsin by Miller, which is pretty neat.

I think this is the smoking gun right there. A traditional welding robot isn't sold or supported by your local welding supply. These will be pretty easy sales for welding gas/ supply reps. I can see it now when a rep making their weekly visit listening to a shop owner complain about how they can't find employees. The sales guy will pipe up with "Let me drop off this robot you can demo for a month, we can get you up and running in an hour". A month later the shop owner is signing on the dotted line. I don't know about miller financing, if they can offer easy terms they won't be able to keep these in stock.


I can see 1 young guy manning the auto saw, plasma table, and welding robot at a job shop while still killing time on the gram and facebook.