Welding Process Automation of Aluminum Alloys for the Transport Industry: An Industrial Robotics Approach

摘要

The materials used in the transport industry have been changing in the last decades. The traditional and heavy steel have been switching by the light alloys like aluminum alloys. However, despite their advantages as low density and high corrosion resistance, the manufacturing process, especially fusion welding, is very demanding and challenging. In the transport industry, most of the hyperstatic components made in aluminum alloys are welded manually with the associate financial costs as well as the lack of quality and repeatability. For these reasons, it is urgent to develop new methodologies to automate this process. The present work intends to show a scientific method to automate the welding process of hyperstatic frames, very common in bicycles, made in aluminum alloy. This methodology involves two steps, the first one in which is performed numerical simulations to determine the optimal welding parameters to minimize the distortion and residual stresses. The second step is experimental one, and it is created an automated welding cell with a robot to weld the frames. It has been proved that it is possible to obtain welding aluminum frames with acceptable quality in agreement with the ASME Ⅸ standard.