Welding robot: one of the main categories of industrial robots, intelligence is the development trend
Welding robot is one of the most important categories of industrial robots. Industrial robots are the most representative equipment for intelligent manufacturing, and their large-scale application is an important means for the future manufacturing industry to replace machines and improve production efficiency. 2022 global industrial robot installation, welding robots accounted for about 16%, second only to handling robots.
Traditional welding robots have been used in automotive, 3C and other industries on a large scale, but they are unable to solve the non-standardized welding work of steel structures, ships and other processes. Traditional welding robots have the advantages of high efficiency, high precision, consistency, etc., and are widely used in automotive/3C/metal products/engineering machinery and other industries with highly standardized welding processes and large batch sizes, replacing most of the manual welding work. However, in the steel structure / ship and other industries, welding presents “multi-category, small batch, non-standard parts” characteristics, the need for welding intelligence to meet the demand for such flexible welding.
Welding robot mainly consists of two main parts: the robot body and welding equipment. Robot body is mainly composed of six-axis robot arm and controller, its core components for the control system, reducer and servo motors, welding equipment, including welding power supply, special welding torch, automatic wire feeding device. In terms of structural differences, the traditional welding robot has a tutor, intelligent welding robot added a large number of software and sensors, without manual programming, adaptive adjustment of processing parameters and paths, without the need for a tutor.
Downstream applications: conventional/intelligent welding robots to meet the needs of standardized/non-standard industries respectively
Mastering a single process of traditional welding robots can only meet the needs of standardized industries, automotive, 3C electronics is the main downstream. The downstream of traditional welding robots include automotive, 3C electronics and other standardized industries. Automotive, 3C electronics industry products have a large number of identical parts, suitable for mass production, with obvious standardization characteristics. In actual production, mastery of a single welding process robot can play a maximum benefit through mass production, so the standardized industry is the main downstream of traditional welding robots: in 2023, automotive, 3C electronics, metal products accounted for 36.9%/10.5%/10.0%, respectively.
Traditional welding robots can not solve the non-standard industry machine for man, intelligent welding is the optimal solution. Steel structures, ships and other industries welding needs with a high degree of non-standard, small batch, multi-species, project-based features, welding process requirements are complex and variable, if the use of traditional welding robots, manual programming teaching workload has increased significantly, and can not be amortized through mass production costs, so the past failed to solve the industry's machine for manpower. In the future, with the further maturation of intelligent welding machines, the penetration rate of welding robots in non-standard industries is expected to continue to increase.
There is a large demand for welding in non-standard scenarios such as steel structures and ships.
The downstream industry welding demand is huge, steel structure, ships and other non-standard scene industry machine replacement space. At present, industries with high welding demand include automobile and auto parts, steel structure, ships and other industries. According to industry associations or GG Robotics data, the volume of steel structure, automobile and auto parts, heavy industry, aerospace and other industries will grow at a single-digit rate in the future; the shipbuilding industry, which has a significant cycle and is in an upward cycle, is expected to maintain a higher rate of growth in the volume in the next few years; the new energy industry is in a rapid development trend, and the growth rate is expected to be in the double-digit growth in the future.
Intelligent welding: steel structure, shipbuilding industry demand is urgent, the release is imminent!
Steel structure machine for manpower power: welding demand is big, but welder shortage & welder cost rise
Necessity: High demand for welding, shortage of welders & continuous rise in welder cost. Healthy development of steel structure industry, welding demand continues to grow.In 2022, China's total output of steel structure processing and manufacturing is 101.4 million tons. The output of steel structure reaches 140 million tons by 2025, and 200 million tons by 2035. It is expected that the CAGR of the output in the next ten years will be about 5%, and the growth rate of welding demand may be the same as the output. There is a serious shortage of experienced welders. Steel structure welding production environment is poor, welding experience is required. At present, the old generation of welders are gradually retiring, and the new generation of young people have low willingness to become welders, but the demand for welders continues to increase, resulting in a continuous expansion of the welder shortage.
Heavy industry: steady development of the industry, high demand for machine replacement
Heavy industry: extensive downstream and certain non-standard attributes, customized chemical parts still require labor. Industry introduction: heavy industry is an important part of the national economy, covering a number of sub-industries such as iron and steel, machinery, shipping, electric power, chemical industry, mineral resources processing. Welding status: welding in heavy industry is widely used, involving steel manufacturing, machining, shipbuilding, power equipment, mining equipment and other fields. Although automation technology is gradually replacing manual welding in some areas, but customized and low volume production of workpieces still need to rely on manual operation. Booming degree: under the global economic recovery and policy support, the industry has maintained a good momentum of development, and is expected to maintain a growth rate of about 5% in the next few years; manual welding scale: according to the China Welding Association data and our judgment of the industry as a whole, it is expected that the automation of heavy industry accounts for about 50%-60%, and the proportion of non-automation is relatively high, and there is still a large space for the replacement of machines in the future.
Intelligent welding development difficulties, market space and competitive landscape
Intelligent welding of steel structures is difficult because of the prominent non-standard properties
The common types of welded joints can be categorized into 4 types, with a large number of subdivided types . Joints that have two or more parts combined using welding are called welded joints. Welded joints include weld seam, fusion zone and heat affected zone. According to the standard, the common basic forms of welded joints can be simply divided into butt joints, lap joints, fillet joints and T-joints. Butt joints: two welding surfaces are relatively parallel joints, is the most widely used form of joints in the welded structure, can withstand a large static load or dynamic load. Lap joint: a joint formed by overlapping two weldments, generally used for steel plates under 12 mm, with both sides welded. This type of joint does not require a high level of assembly and is easy to weld, but has a lower load carrying capacity and can only be used in unimportant structures. Angle joint: the two welding ends form a joint with an angle of more than 30 degrees and less than 135 degrees, generally used in unimportant welded structures. T-joints: joints in which the weld end surfaces form a right angle or a near-right angle to the defined weld plane. t-joints are widely used and have certain requirements for bearing loads.
High complexity of the welding process, variety of scenarios, need for real-time dynamic adjustment
The welding process is extremely complex and needs to be adjusted to the welding situation at any time. Before welding: according to the shape of the bevel of the workpiece, welding quality requirements, the welder needs to judge the welding path, the running direction of the torch, the angle of the torch, the welding sequence, the set current and voltage parameters; welding: the bevel may be subjected to heat to produce unknown deformation, the depth of each weld and the welding speed, the emergence of quality problems, how to adjust the need for accurate judgment, need to be based on the welder's experience to carry out the judgment, it is difficult to form a written, standardized, dynamic adjustment of welding process. It is difficult to form a written, standardized instructions. Mature welders master special material welding, multiple welding methods, real-time analysis of welding defects and other capabilities, with sufficient accumulation of technology and a lot of practical experience.
Welding robot: one of the main categories of industrial robots, intelligence is the development trend
Welding robot is one of the most important categories of industrial robots. Industrial robots are the most representative equipment for intelligent manufacturing, and their large-scale application is an important means for the future manufacturing industry to replace machines and improve production efficiency. 2022 global industrial robot installation, welding robots accounted for about 16%, second only to handling robots.
Traditional welding robots have been used in automotive, 3C and other industries on a large scale, but they are unable to solve the non-standardized welding work of steel structures, ships and other processes. Traditional welding robots have the advantages of high efficiency, high precision, consistency, etc., and are widely used in automotive/3C/metal products/engineering machinery and other industries with highly standardized welding processes and large batch sizes, replacing most of the manual welding work. However, in the steel structure / ship and other industries, welding presents “multi-category, small batch, non-standard parts” characteristics, the need for welding intelligence to meet the demand for such flexible welding.
Welding robot mainly consists of two main parts: the robot body and welding equipment. Robot body is mainly composed of six-axis robot arm and controller, its core components for the control system, reducer and servo motors, welding equipment, including welding power supply, special welding torch, automatic wire feeding device. In terms of structural differences, the traditional welding robot has a tutor, intelligent welding robot added a large number of software and sensors, without manual programming, adaptive adjustment of processing parameters and paths, without the need for a tutor.
Downstream applications: conventional/intelligent welding robots to meet the needs of standardized/non-standard industries respectively
Mastering a single process of traditional welding robots can only meet the needs of standardized industries, automotive, 3C electronics is the main downstream. The downstream of traditional welding robots include automotive, 3C electronics and other standardized industries. Automotive, 3C electronics industry products have a large number of identical parts, suitable for mass production, with obvious standardization characteristics. In actual production, mastery of a single welding process robot can play a maximum benefit through mass production, so the standardized industry is the main downstream of traditional welding robots: in 2023, automotive, 3C electronics, metal products accounted for 36.9%/10.5%/10.0%, respectively.
Traditional welding robots can not solve the non-standard industry machine for man, intelligent welding is the optimal solution. Steel structures, ships and other industries welding needs with a high degree of non-standard, small batch, multi-species, project-based features, welding process requirements are complex and variable, if the use of traditional welding robots, manual programming teaching workload has increased significantly, and can not be amortized through mass production costs, so the past failed to solve the industry's machine for manpower. In the future, with the further maturation of intelligent welding machines, the penetration rate of welding robots in non-standard industries is expected to continue to increase.
There is a large demand for welding in non-standard scenarios such as steel structures and ships.
The downstream industry welding demand is huge, steel structure, ships and other non-standard scene industry machine replacement space. At present, industries with high welding demand include automobile and auto parts, steel structure, ships and other industries. According to industry associations or GG Robotics data, the volume of steel structure, automobile and auto parts, heavy industry, aerospace and other industries will grow at a single-digit rate in the future; the shipbuilding industry, which has a significant cycle and is in an upward cycle, is expected to maintain a higher rate of growth in the volume in the next few years; the new energy industry is in a rapid development trend, and the growth rate is expected to be in the double-digit growth in the future.
Intelligent welding: steel structure, shipbuilding industry demand is urgent, the release is imminent!
Steel structure machine for manpower power: welding demand is big, but welder shortage & welder cost rise
Necessity: High demand for welding, shortage of welders & continuous rise in welder cost. Healthy development of steel structure industry, welding demand continues to grow.In 2022, China's total output of steel structure processing and manufacturing is 101.4 million tons. The output of steel structure reaches 140 million tons by 2025, and 200 million tons by 2035. It is expected that the CAGR of the output in the next ten years will be about 5%, and the growth rate of welding demand may be the same as the output. There is a serious shortage of experienced welders. Steel structure welding production environment is poor, welding experience is required. At present, the old generation of welders are gradually retiring, and the new generation of young people have low willingness to become welders, but the demand for welders continues to increase, resulting in a continuous expansion of the welder shortage.
Heavy industry: steady development of the industry, high demand for machine replacement
Heavy industry: extensive downstream and certain non-standard attributes, customized chemical parts still require labor. Industry introduction: heavy industry is an important part of the national economy, covering a number of sub-industries such as iron and steel, machinery, shipping, electric power, chemical industry, mineral resources processing. Welding status: welding in heavy industry is widely used, involving steel manufacturing, machining, shipbuilding, power equipment, mining equipment and other fields. Although automation technology is gradually replacing manual welding in some areas, but customized and low volume production of workpieces still need to rely on manual operation. Booming degree: under the global economic recovery and policy support, the industry has maintained a good momentum of development, and is expected to maintain a growth rate of about 5% in the next few years; manual welding scale: according to the China Welding Association data and our judgment of the industry as a whole, it is expected that the automation of heavy industry accounts for about 50%-60%, and the proportion of non-automation is relatively high, and there is still a large space for the replacement of machines in the future.
Intelligent welding development difficulties, market space and competitive landscape
Intelligent welding of steel structures is difficult because of the prominent non-standard properties
The common types of welded joints can be categorized into 4 types, with a large number of subdivided types . Joints that have two or more parts combined using welding are called welded joints. Welded joints include weld seam, fusion zone and heat affected zone. According to the standard, the common basic forms of welded joints can be simply divided into butt joints, lap joints, fillet joints and T-joints. Butt joints: two welding surfaces are relatively parallel joints, is the most widely used form of joints in the welded structure, can withstand a large static load or dynamic load. Lap joint: a joint formed by overlapping two weldments, generally used for steel plates under 12 mm, with both sides welded. This type of joint does not require a high level of assembly and is easy to weld, but has a lower load carrying capacity and can only be used in unimportant structures. Angle joint: the two welding ends form a joint with an angle of more than 30 degrees and less than 135 degrees, generally used in unimportant welded structures. T-joints: joints in which the weld end surfaces form a right angle or a near-right angle to the defined weld plane. t-joints are widely used and have certain requirements for bearing loads.
High complexity of the welding process, variety of scenarios, need for real-time dynamic adjustment
The welding process is extremely complex and needs to be adjusted to the welding situation at any time. Before welding: according to the shape of the bevel of the workpiece, welding quality requirements, the welder needs to judge the welding path, the running direction of the torch, the angle of the torch, the welding sequence, the set current and voltage parameters; welding: the bevel may be subjected to heat to produce unknown deformation, the depth of each weld and the welding speed, the emergence of quality problems, how to adjust the need for accurate judgment, need to be based on the welder's experience to carry out the judgment, it is difficult to form a written, standardized, dynamic adjustment of welding process. It is difficult to form a written, standardized instructions. Mature welders master special material welding, multiple welding methods, real-time analysis of welding defects and other capabilities, with sufficient accumulation of technology and a lot of practical experience.
