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Double the production speed with Yaskawa welding robots
At Vanderscheuren in Diksmuide, West Flanders, two Yaskawa welding robots ensure that customized products can be welded for 16 hours, 5 days a week. The robots are supplied complete with manipulator, fencing, extraction, welding equipment and track. The installation was provided by VSE Technologies.
Yaskawa partner VSE Technologies from Heist-op-den-Berg had already performed work for Vanderscheuren, executive producer of custom metalworking. This customer had a number of older robot installations from another brand with outdated ESAB welding sources. VSE has “upgraded” one of the installations with new welding equipment. Due to the age of the three existing welding robots at Vanderscheuren, a second-hand Yaskawa welding robot followed to replace the second robot. This was equipped with new welding equipment by VSE and was taken into use. For the third robot, a completely new installation was opted for.
Of course Yaskawa
Until then, Vanderscheuren worked according to the principle of a fixed work table on which they assembled a piece by hand, which was welded by the robot and only when the robot was ready did they take the piece off and a new piece was placed, after which the robot went back into its process. On the advice of VSE, the customer decided to purchase a completely new installation in which the third obsolete robot was also replaced. “We also did that with a Yaskawa installation, of course. The best!" says Kristof Vleugels, Sales Engineer at VSE Technologies.
Production speed doubled
The new installation has a large manipulator with two workstations where pieces of up to 5 meters can be placed between and where the operator can load while the robot is welding. The operator is protected from the arc during loading and unloading by a shield between the two stations. The station change takes place around a horizontal axis and is fully integrated in the robot program. The robot stands on a track, also from Yaskawa, so that the entire 5 meters can be reached easily. With this solution, the production speed could be doubled.
Vanderscheuren makes oil tanks that are built into large industrial loom machines and that keep the spindles oiled. An oil tank is a square tube with a diameter not exceeding 20 cm. “They work with a fixed purchase per day, so they have to be able to deliver a certain number of pieces per day. The last time I spoke to them, they were four days ahead in production,” says Vleugels.
Up to 5 meters in length
The installation consists of the robot, manipulator and track, but also the fencing and extraction, all installed by VSE Technologies. The whole was first built up at VSE with support from Yaskawa. Vanderscheuren was going to expand and had built a new building. “We moved the second-hand robot from the old building to the new one,” continues Vleugels. “There, the installations are next to each other and use the same extraction.” The first Yaskawa robot has a small turntable, but the manipulator of the new installation can stretch up to 5 meters.
This length is sometimes necessary because the oil tanks have 12 different lengths. The longer the oil tank, the more welding it takes. The program of the shorter oil tanks can be used for the longer lengths, where only the length has to be adjusted. The 12 lengths have been programmed in the control system by VSE, while the entire Functional Safety Unit (FSU) has been programmed by a Yaskawa robot engineer. Before the installation was commissioned, the robot operators from Vanderscheuren spent a few days at the Yaskawa Benelux Academy for extensive training.
Extensive machine park
In addition to the two Yaskawa robot installations (the third obsolete robot has now been demolished), the new Vanderscheuren production hall also houses cutting machines, bending machines and more in an extensive machine park. For now they are not going to automate further. The maintenance of the robot installations will be carried out by VSE Technologies so that the current accelerated production can be maintained.
