Amid the revival of the shipbuilding industry and the expansion of domestic demand, in Japan, greater emphasis in recent years has been placed on welding automation and robotization to meet an increasing number of welding operations and as a counter measure for the aging of skilled welders. As key technologies to promote steel sales and to increase business opportunities in the civil engineering and construction fields, the NS stud welding process and stud and MAG welding method for stud welding of reinforcing rods, the NS-ROBO 21 system for field welding of building steel frames, and a column splice welding robot have been developed, tested on-site, and put to practical use. Coupled with the articulated steel frame welding robot system SF Robo system, these technologies have become features of the welding equipment business in the Nippon Steel group. More recently, the Nippon Steel group has also worked on the development of robotic welding by incorporating the latest in mechatronics and image processing techniques, such as on-line and off-line groove profiling, groove shape measuring, automatically welding condition setting, and automatic welding status monitoring.
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