Construction is a special industry for automation because of its low product volume compared to other industries such as automotive where the advantage of automation is more obvious.

Nevertheless, automation in the construction of pre-fabricated structures is increasing because of the lack of qualified welders. Laser vision systems are used for tracking and also to define the welding parameters based on the joint geometry.

Sky scraper columns

Intelligent robots for welding of sky scraper columns have been developed. A demand for pipe columns with rings for steel-column building construction has increased because they have a higher flexibility in design and a higher strength than a box column.

The rings are fixed to the column in the factory. The grooves to be welded with multi-pass GMA welding can require up to 70 passes and it can be a very tedious task for an operator to adjust and supervise this process. Therefore, an intelligent system using a laser camera for sensing the groove along the process was designed to automate the welding process.

Pipe steel structure

To properly weld pipe structures an advanced arc welding robot system equipped with a Servo-Robot laser vision system and necessary peripheral for pipe welding has been developed.

The system is mainly used to weld pipe to pipe joints at different angles. Traditionally, touch sensing using the robot torch is not applicable due to the round shapes of the components. Instead a vision system is used to locate the intersection of the pipe, which is followed by a dry run over the joint to accurately define the torch wire position on the joint and the welding parameters along these saddle joints.

Aluminium concrete forms

A manufacturer of aluminum concrete forms has implemented arc welding robots to produce their products. Due to the inaccuracy of the parts and real time thermal distortion, laser vision systems must be used to track the joints.

These robotic systems are being used in place of conventional semi-automatic welding. The robotic vision system leads to improved weld quality thus reducing the amount of manual grinding required.