For years, automating welding was about producing better quality and consistency. While that’s still true, there is a bigger reason why many manufacturers and fabricators are using robotic welding today.
Automating welding can have many benefits for fabricators and manufacturers, including consistent weld quality, better efficiency, less scrap and part cost savings, but there is one main reason companies are asking FANUC America about robotic welding and our ARC Mate Series these days: they can’t find welders.
The American Welding Society just released new numbers that paint a pretty grim picture of the welding workforce. The welding jobs needed to be filled annually between now and 2028 is 82,500, or roughly an estimated 330,000 new welders will be needed by 2028. Currently, the number of welders in the US is 771,000, according to AWS, and more than 159,000 of them are either at or approaching retirement age.
These numbers reveal the struggle that many companies needing skilled welders are experiencing; there are not enough welders available to fill the demand. Even though recruitment efforts are underway to remedy this situation, more and more companies are turning to automation to help alleviate the labor shortage.
That’s why FANUC America has created many options for operations of all sizes and levels of automation experience to meet their welding needs now.
What Caused the Welder Shortage?
Welding is critical for not just job shops, but for many industries including aerospace and defense, construction, automotive, shipbuilding and more. However, manufacturing and welding still suffers from an antiquated stigma that the work is dirty, dull and dangerous.
As FANUC America and its customers know, the manufacturing industry is much more advanced than the average person understands it to be. On the flip side of the “manufacturing is outdated” opinion, there is the belief that the industry deploys too much automation and that all the manufacturing jobs will eventually be eliminated.
Even though the job outlook for skilled welders is strong, the number of workers that are 55 years and older makes up over 21 percent of the welding workforce while the percentage of welders that are under 25 percent is only 9 percent of the workforce. That means not enough younger people are becoming welders despite most welders earning a $53,000 salary right out of a six-to-18-month technical degree program, which is a fraction of the cost of a four-year bachelor’s degree.
Despite the need and the incentives present, new skilled welders do not seem to be coming down the pike. That’s why many businesses needing welders are turning to FANUC America for robotic automation solutions.
Advantages of Automating Welding
Even though many companies are acutely feeling the pinch of not enough welders and using automation to solve the skilled welder labor shortage, there are many other benefits to automating welding. These include the obvious quality benefits robotic welding provides, such as better, more accurate welds with repeatable, consistent results translating into much less wasted parts and less material used. This along with efficiency benefits adding to overall profitability bring the cost per part produced with robotic welding automation down.
Automating welding with FANUC offers companies an even bigger advantage due to our experience and largest ASI network, which can help integrate FANUC robots into difficult welding applications. In addition to offering the widest range of robots and cobots in the industry, FANUC has several built-in solutions in our ARC Mate robots, such as the capability to easily handle MIG (GMAW), TIG (GTAW), plasma (PAW) or laser welding.
Plus, our robots can be seamlessly integrated to auxiliary motors and positioners. Welding positioners can be programmed to move independent of or coordinated with the robot motion to optimize welding speed and quality.
Additionally, FANUC’s solutions for simple setup and programming make it easy to start automating your arc welding process. ArcTool software offers easy-to-understand user interfaces using common welding terms to enable faster development of robot programs and quicker robot deployment.
Integrated vision allows robots to recognize and locate objects, weld seams and part features as well as to perform pre-weld checks or inspections. Our intelligent arc welding robots can automatically adjust Tool Center Point (TCP) during torch maintenance to maximize system uptime and increase productivity by maintaining consistent weld seams.
Where FANUC‘s Arc Welding Robots Are Used
FANUC’s arc welding robots have slim wrists well suited for arc welding processes involving hard-to-access spaces. FANUC’s arc welding robots are used extensively in TIER 1 manufacturing for car axle, bracket, seat and exhaust welding as well as to produce goods, such as beams and cranes, and base business goods, such as tanks, tubes and pipes.
FANUC robots also offer both the strength and reliability to handle other types of arc welding applications, including submerged arc welding, tandem torches and multiple welding processes on the same robot. Additional payload capability allows other peripheral equipment to be added on, such as sensors or grippers for material handling tasks.
The hollow wrist design allows the welding torch to be routed through the robot arm to reduce wear and tear on the expensive welding cables. The through-arm design also protects the cabling and allows offline programming without having to simulate cable placement.
Additionally, the M-710iC/12L is the longest reach hollow arm robot available on the market. This reach makes it possible to weld very large parts and eliminates the need for a rail axis in arc welding applications.
If additive manufacturing is part of your operations, FANUC’s arc welding robot has you covered. Our ARC Mate Series robots enable our customers to add flexibility and efficiency to their additive manufacturing processes. Additive manufacturing program generation via 3rd-party CAD slicer paths allows customers to quickly take solid models from the digital world and make them come to life.
Automating Welding with FANUC Cobots
Cobot welders are the perfect solution for those that have never worked with robotics before or have very limited knowledge of them. FANUC has specifically designed the CRX line of collaborative robots to have very easy-to-use interfaces and simple programming capabilities, including hand guidance and drag-n-drop tools.
FANUC welding cobots are ideal for high-mix, low-volume production. Because our collaborative robots are so easy to teach, they are perfect for applications that need to adapt to part changeover quickly while still maintaining high quality welds. Plus, FANUC’s cobots have a compact design and do not require safety guarding for many applications, which saves floor space.
Customers – even those with no experience using a robot – can set up FANUC collaborative robots straight out of the box and create programs on the fly. The cobots can then quickly be moved for redeployment in a new area. Our welding cobots fit in virtually any floor space configuration with several mounting options including mobile robot configuration for ultimate flexibility.
With FANUC cobots, users can select the weld process that fits the application. The CRX cobot family can handle MIG (GMAW), TIG (GTAW), Plasma (PAW) or Laser welding. FANUC works with you to find the right robot model and options to fit your application.
Moreover, FANUC's CRX-25iA cobot welder is extremely robust and able to run for up to eight years without maintenance. The CRX-25iA has a 1,889mm reach and offers an enhanced 30kg payload capacity, allowing it to handle heavier workpieces with full wrist articulation.
In addition, CRX welding cobots support FANUC's advanced features including iRVision®, Torch Angle Control, Touch Sensing and Thru Arc Seam Tracking (TAST). Operators will appreciate the ability to easily teach weld joints using hand guidance or a Tablet TP with drag and drop icons.
If you are experiencing the skilled welder shortage, get in touch with us today to see how we can help you!