KUKA welding robots provide precision to the textile industry

While KUKA weld­ing robots are a for­mi­da­ble force in areas like the auto­mo­tive and aero­space indus­tries, they are also put to good use in oth­er not eas­i­ly thought of areas, like the tex­tile indus­try. One tex­tile machine man­u­fac­tur­er, Trutzschler, has shown that KUKA welders play a key part of their production.

The pro­duc­tion of rotary drums requires extreme accu­ra­cy and pre­ci­sion to get the bal­ance of the piece cor­rect. These drums, made of sol­id steel plates, have to meet extreme­ly high tol­er­ances and rota­tion speeds. With the help of a KUKA weld­ing robot, the KR 6, this lev­el of accu­ra­cy is achieved.

The large rotary drums that the KUKA KR 6 welds have a diam­e­ter of 1200mm with a thick­ness of 22mm, while the small­er drums are a lit­tle more than half that size. When the KUKA weld­ing robot is in oper­a­tion dur­ing a cycle, it welds up to 8.5m of seams on the large drum, and 4.3 of seams on small­er drums. This cycle process takes about 14 – 26 min­utes, depend­ing on the size of the drum. These welds have to be uni­form and accu­rate, along with being per­fect­ly bal­anced. This is why KUKA weld­ing robot­ics are a must for the application.

The KUKA weld­ing process is extreme­ly pro­duc­tive. Dur­ing a sin­gle shift, the KUKA welder can make up to eight sets of two drums. The weld­ing robot is user-friend­ly and has the ver­sa­til­i­ty to run sev­er­al weld­ing pro­grams for dif­fer­ent parts, using sensors.

Down­time has been decreased dur­ing the pro­duc­tion of the drums as well. The KUKA KR6 welder doesn’t need breaks or lunch­es. It doesn’t need days off or to go home after an 8 – 10 hour work­day. In the­o­ry, the KUKA weld­ing robot could run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduces pro­duc­tion and labor costs for the tex­tile manufacturer.

Robots​.com, a cer­ti­fied inte­gra­tor of KUKA weld­ing robot­ics, has an entire array of KUKA welders avail­able for pur­chase and cus­tomiza­tion. Whether you want a sin­gle weld­ing robot, or a KUKA weld­ing robot in work­cell sys­tem, Robots​.com can design some­thing to meet your application’s unique automa­tion needs.

For more infor­ma­tion on automat­ing your weld­ing process with KUKA weld­ing robot­ics, con­tact Robots​.com today online or at 877−762−6881.