What Are The Differences Between Spot Welding Robots And Arc Welding Robots?

Due to the many differences in the integrated applications of spot welding robots and arc welding robots, Industrial Robots Manufacturerare here to talk about their differences and characteristics.

Simply put, they are two completely different welding modes, using different welding processes for welding. The spot welding robot uses resistance to generate heat to heat the welding point to achieve the purpose of welding; the arc welding robot melts the welding wire to weld the workpiece together.

Spot welding robot

Since the Spot welding robot touches the point and the workpiece when it is working, the accurate positioning of the point and the workpiece is very important. There are no strict regulations on the moving trajectory of the welding robot. The spot welding robot not only has strong carrying capacity, but also needs to be fast when shifting from point to point, move smoothly, and position accurately to reduce the shifting time and improve Work efficiency.

How much load capacity does the spot welding robot need? It depends on the type of welding gun used. For welding guns separated from the transformer, a welding robot with a load of 30-45kg is sufficient. However, on the one hand, this kind of welding tongs has a long secondary cable and large power loss, which is not conducive to the robot extending the welding tongs into the workpiece for welding. On the other hand, the cable keeps swinging with the movement of the robot, and the damage of the cable is faster. Therefore, the use of integrated welding guns is gradually increasing. The weight of this welding tongs together with the transformer is about 70kg.

Considering that the welding robot must have sufficient load capacity and be able to send the welding tongs to the space position for welding with a large acceleration, a heavy-duty robot with a load of 100-150kg is usually selected. In order to meet the requirement of short-distance rapid displacement of the welding gun during continuous spot welding, the new heavy-duty robot has added a function that can complete a 50mm displacement in 0.3s. This puts forward higher requirements on the performance of the motor, the calculation speed of the microcomputer and the algorithm.

Arc Welding Robot

Arc welding robot

The procedure of an arc welding robot is much more complicated than that of a spot welding robot. The center point of the tool, that is, the movement trajectory of the welding wire end, the welding gun posture, and the welding parameters require precise control. Therefore, in addition to the general functions described above, the arc welding robot must also have some functions suitable for arc welding requirements.

Although theoretically speaking, a robot with 5 axes can be used for arc welding, but it is difficult to use a robot with 5 axes for complex welds. Therefore, unless the welding seam is relatively simple, a 6-axis robot should be used as much as possible.

In addition to the previously mentioned Arc welding robot for zigzag corner welding or small diameter round weld welding, its trajectory should be close to the taught trajectory, and it should also have software functions for different swing patterns for programming. It is selected for weaving welding, and the robot should automatically stop moving forward at the stopping point in each cycle to meet the technological requirements. In addition, there should be contact location, automatic search for the starting point of the weld, arc tracking and automatic arc re-ignition functions.