Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi everyone.
I mentioned at work that I have previously worked on/with welding robots, so I was given the job of getting the welding robot going, no one has worked on it for 3 or more years and its just lain there idle all that time.

The battery that saves all the data is dead so a new one is ordered, the data that is still there needs to be backed up but this thing takes pcmcia cards for back ups....... a card and reader have been ordered off ebay.

A $750,000 robot just sitting there for me to play with.
It will probably need a whole remaster to get it going.

Anyone else play with welding robots?

the company you're working for must have very deep pockets to let a 3/4 of a million bucks stand idle all this time. when it was working what was the robot welding?

We make caravan chassis, Ive only been there for 6 months, the department I work in make the independent suspension components.
The robot was welding the suspension components prior to being disused.

The previous operator did a runner, maybe for more money?

Hey,

Dude, if you fancy a road trip up to bendigo, ill give you a guided tour of of factory, where we have 3 welding robots, one pick and place, 2 preheating robs. Two of the welding robots are whats called "robot on robot" where they are essentially, 2 robots, one on top of the other, the bottom on moves the top one to position and then the top one does the welding.

PM me if you are interested, I dont drive them, merely fix their stuff ups, but you'll be able to meet the guys who run them,

Mick

"Robot on robot"??? Sounds like a scene from "Futurama"...

I'd be excited to be turned loose on an idle machine like that! (That didn't sound quite right, after my first comment...)

Steve S

The robots act a little like bender from futurama. They some times say : bite my metal ass and do what ever the want. Hence why im about to cut out a plate because the robot destroyed it.

Mick

weldin mike 27 wrote:Hey,

Dude, if you fancy a road trip up to bendigo, ill give you a guided tour of of factory, where we have 3 welding robots, one pick and place, 2 preheating robs. Two of the welding robots are whats called "robot on robot" where they are essentially, 2 robots, one on top of the other, the bottom on moves the top one to position and then the top one does the welding.

PM me if you are interested, I dont drive them, merely fix their stuff ups, but you'll be able to meet the guys who run them,

Mick

Sounds good Mick, Ill pm you at a later date.

My new baby........

no worries mate.

Well, I tack up the parts, place the parts on a cart and set it on it's "dock", and press a couple buttons on a touch screen.
The robot then drops the curtain, grabs the part, places it inside, raises the curtain, and the magic happens. The robot then lowers the curtain and places the part back on the cart.

What happens behind the curtain is a mystery to me That is why the programers get the bigger bucks.

The mystery behind the curtain also explains how our politicians keep getting paid...

that sounds like something out of the wizard of oz

It was meant to...

We get alot of politician type responses from the robot operators and people, Oh we know that happened and we've established a work group to head towards a fix by next....... yeah what ever. I still have to grind the shit out and fix it.

Mick

So has no one sneaked in to see whats behind that curtain - you sure there is actually a robot in there ? maybe they got some Mexicans living / welding in there - that's why Mick has to keep re welding their fook ups !

Now that robot on a robot is kinda weird - it's not at Cyberdyne is it ? So if these robots are doing welders out of work tell Sarah Connor - she'll get it sorted faster than any union !

The only things these things can terminate is a nice piece of plate into a twisted hunk of crap. (im not really being fair, they really do a resonable job considering the amount of welding in each job) and it is certainly is cool to watch it poke its arm in through a doorway about 5 foot x 3 foot and weld inside.

Mick

noddybrian wrote:So has no one sneaked in to see whats behind that curtain - you sure there is actually a robot in there ? maybe they got some Mexicans living / welding in there - that's why Mick has to keep re welding their fook ups !

Jose and Hose B aside, the robots do screw it up once in a while. Even more frustrating is that you have to only tack what the robot wants tacked. If I weld too much, the robot gets jealous, stops, and throws a tantrum. If there is any sort of gap, the robot makes the gap bigger by blowing a huge hole threw the part.

But all in all, it sucks when I have to weld up those parts. So I shouldn't pick on robots too much. They do make my job easier (when robbie the robot is in a good mood).

Hey if it's called Robbie is that the one from " Forbidden Planet " ( showing my age here ) - they got that one making like robot bootleg alcohol !

Now someone reading this post expecting serious welding discussion is going to wonder what we've all been smoking ! ( and even where their tweezers / vernier caliper went ! ) But it does make you wonder sometimes - once robots make stuff including more robots how far fetched or how far off is " Judgement day " ?

I will tell you, robots are not going to put us out of work. They can (when running) make production increase.
When they are down, which happens, they are no better than the guy that called in sick.

As long as I don't have to work with (for?) HAL.

Follow da blue light wrote:Hi everyone.
I mentioned at work that I have previously worked on/with welding robots, so I was given the job of getting the welding robot going, no one has worked on it for 3 or more years and its just lain there idle all that time.

The battery that saves all the data is dead so a new one is ordered, the data that is still there needs to be backed up but this thing takes pcmcia cards for back ups....... a card and reader have been ordered off ebay.

A $750,000 robot just sitting there for me to play with.
It will probably need a whole remaster to get it going.

Anyone else play with welding robots?

Maybe you can just have it serve you breakfast in bed now! haha

Well since my first post about robotic welders a month ago the powers that be have kept me manually welding the parts that should go on the robot because they cant afford the down time for me to program the robot, WTF.

There is another guy in the factory (a painter) that had the same thing done to him 3 years ago with the same robot, so the robot just sits there, idle...

Never mind, I tried.
Ive since picked up a job at another place as a production supervisor so the robot and myself are parting company, we'll celebrate with a shot of oil each.

Goodbye Bender, it was fun while it lasted.

Might be for the best. I've been listening to the sound of gouging rods and grinders for the last couple days.

Robot F'd up a BUNCH of parts before a human caught the mistake. At least when I screw up my supervisor can kick me in the ass. It hurts to kick a ton of metal.