Feb 28 2011
Youngman Group will invest £2.5 million in the state of the art technology required for setting up two fully-automated welding cells with ABB's IRB 1600 robots.
ABB's IRB 1600, welding cell robots, will enable the Youngman Group to achieve improved productivity and reduced stockholding. With this investment, the Youngman Group hopes to compete against imports from lower cost economies such as China.
Back in 2005, the Youngman business resulted in a buy-out owing to very low investment in automation of production processes. Most of the machinery used was manual from cutting to welding.
ABB’s experts observed that laser cutting and robotic welding are potential areas for improvement. ABB first worked on establishing the design for seven different frames and five different frame lengths. It was estimated by ABB engineers that Youngman could achieve flexible production with the installation of this automated welding cells. The solution will allow accurate control of heat to produce durable welds with minimal distortion and improved finish.
The compact IRB 1600 robot from ABB is a bending backwards robot that can be mounted onto a servo driven track to increase the working area of the cell. The reliable and effective track motion system ensures the robot’s accuracy whilst balancing the speed of production. The robot is capable of extending greatly to reach long work pieces.
Source: http://www.abb.com/