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Email:

Phone:

+8618202898533

Address: 4th Floor, Building B, No. 2, No. 118 Hangtian Road, New Economy Industrial Park, Chenghua District, Chengdu

Production Base: Building 3, No. 2, Section 1 of Guangzhou Road, Deyang National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, Sichuan Province

Steel Structure Welding Robot Workstation

Category:

Welding Robot Workstation

Tel:

+8613540403868

Email:

13540403868@163.com

Industry Background

1. Current Status of the Steel Structure Industry

Huge demand: The massive demand for steel and the ongoing expansion of infrastructure mean that, as a product of essential need, the demand for structural steel in construction continues to rise.
Labor-intensive: As the most time-consuming process in the fabrication of steel structures, welding is still predominantly performed using conventional manual techniques.
Welder’s notch has widened. Welding labor costs are rising sharply, demand for welders is increasing year by year, and there is a severe shortage of skilled welders; cultivating an outstanding welder takes more than ten years.

2. Current Status of Manual Welding

Harsh working conditions: The working environment at steel‑structure fabrication sites is generally harsh. Welders perform a specialized occupation, and the conditions on site are often dirty, disorganized, and substandard. High temperatures, arc radiation, fumes, and noise can cause irreversible health damage, while prolonged work hours lead to declining welding productivity and inconsistent weld quality.
Severe population aging: Young people are reluctant to enter the welding industry, leading to a skills gap and a shortage of welders, which in turn drives up wages.

3. Challenges in Robotic Welding Applications

Multiple batches, small quantities
Traditional robots are typically deployed for high-volume, repetitive tasks; however, in the steel construction industry, there is a significant demand for multi‑batch, small‑lot welding operations.
In the construction steel‑structure industry, product value-added is low, investment in high‑end equipment is insufficient, cutting accuracy is poor, assembly misalignment is significant, and it is impossible to fabricate precise welding jigs and fixtures.

3. Challenges in Robotic Welding Applications

The product has a large overall error.
The workpiece is large in size and weight, unsuitable for positioning with tooling fixtures, and exhibits poor incoming‑material consistency. Welding requirements stipulate that the perpendicularity of the stiffener plates to the web and to the two side flanges must be free of deviation and gaps; however, operation according to the pre‑taught trajectory cannot meet these specifications.

3. Challenges in Robotic Welding Applications

Handmade group match
The weld points on the stiffener plates are randomly arranged, with no discernible pattern.

3. Challenges in Robotic Welding Applications

Large material-cutting error
Rib plates are typically cut using a shearing machine, resulting in significant dimensional inaccuracies, uneven surfaces, out-of-straight bends, and diagonal distortions.

3. Challenges in Robotic Welding Applications

Large angular error in the rib plate cutting.
Non-uniform through-hole dimensions result in inconsistent weld start and end points, leading to uncontrollable variations in weld length. Moreover, poor consistency in incoming workpiece dimensions means that following a pre‑taught trajectory cannot meet the required welding specifications.

3. Challenges in Robotic Welding Applications

Robot Programming
Workers in this industry generally have relatively low levels of education. Traditional robot teach‑in programming is overly complex and cumbersome, with a large number of weld seams, non‑reusable programs, and poor alignment accuracy. As a result, standard arc‑welding robots cannot be widely adopted in the steel‑structure sector.

4. The Intelligent Welding Platform Is Born

Traditional manual welding
Low level of automation; harsh welding environment with significant noise and radiation pollution; uncontrollable weld quality.

4. The Intelligent Welding Platform Is Born

Traditional robotic welding
During programming, the robot must be shut down; teach‑in is difficult and time‑consuming; frequent changeovers actually reduce the robot’s efficiency.

4. The Intelligent Welding Platform Is Born

Intelligent Welding
Offline programming, eliminating the need for on-site work; production and programming run in parallel, with no robot downtime; highly intelligent, with a low operational barrier.

Features of Intelligent Welding Robots

H-beam processing

The robot features built-in internal tubing, with no external cables at the rear of the wire feeder; all lines are integrated into the robot’s fixed base.

Various workstation configurations

Floor-mounted workstation

Gantry Dual-Machine Workstation

Cantilever Workstation

Seven-axis cantilever

Eight-axis cantilever

Nine-axis cantilever

Cantilever Workstation – Dual-Unit Common-Rail Overhead Suspension

Cantilever Workstation – Large-Cantilever Dual-Unit Common-Rail Overhead Suspension – Bridge

Cantilever Workstation – New 7-Axis Cantilever Working Range

7-axis cantilever with a 12-meter ground rail, featuring a welding coverage map, line laser, and a 3D camera; single-sided welding.

8-axis cantilever robot welding range

Workpiece height (mm)	Workpiece Width MAX (mm)
100	2600
300	2950
600	3200
900	3050
1100	2700

New 9-axis cantilever working range

9-axis cantilever, 12-meter ground rail welding envelope diagram, equipped with a line laser and a 3D camera, for single-sided welding.

Teach‑less welding solution

Fully independently developed : The core algorithms are entirely developed in-house, with no reliance on external vendors.
Teach‑by‑example programming: The welding posture, positioning posture, and empty‑travel path are all calculated by the software.
Weld Seam Tracking System: Combining feedforward and feedback to achieve higher welding accuracy.

Simple operation, no teach-in required.

1: Model import, with automatic extraction and analysis of welds, compatible with mainstream 3D modeling software such as Tekla and SolidWorks.

2: Automatic sorting (based on the robot’s shortest non‑productive travel distance), supporting automated planning of empty‑travel paths, and incorporating both collision detection and singularity avoidance.

3: By leveraging digital twin technology, synchronized motion between the robot in the software and the robot in the real-world workstation can be achieved.

4: Automatically generates the welding torch pose (torch angle), supports automatic calculation of both the welding pose and the positioning pose, and provides visualized display in the software interface.

5: Customized processes; manually import process template libraries.

6: Long-range (large‑range) high-speed scanning for initial positioning, enabling automatic model‑to‑workpiece alignment and automatic identification of the workpiece’s A and B surfaces as well as its front and rear ends.

7: Supports batch generation of weld seams, saving time on toolpath creation for similar welds.

8: The push-pull angle, front tool‑change distance, and rear tool‑change distance can be set individually for each weld seam.

9: Supports breakpoint‑based resumption of machining. Allows customization of the arc‑retract distance for restarts.

10: Supports breaking and connecting welds at the locations of through-weld holes.

11: Obstacles other than the model can be manually added in the software to prevent collisions (e.g., walls or fixtures).

12: Automatic camera–hand–eye calibration function.

13: Corner‑welding process.

14: Production data statistics functionality, supporting remote viewing via a mobile applet.

Real-time online adjustment of the welding torch’s push-pull angle.

The welding torch orientation (push‑pull angle) is adjusted on-site, with modifications based on the model—eliminating the need to make separate adjustments on the teach pendant at the smart operation platform.

Wireless teach pendant

Offline programming: Based on workpiece and workstation scene models, the built-in welding process package enables rapid weld seam configuration, while an automatic collision‑avoidance algorithm swiftly generates welding paths.

BAYKAL Vision Sensor: Strong anti-interference capability (3D cameras are prone to interference from ambient light). The same camera supports both long and short working distances: the long range (750–1800 mm) is used for coarse positioning, while the short range (550–750 mm) enables precise positioning, target acquisition, and error correction.

Rough positioning

Precise positioning

Weld Pool Monitoring

Digital Twin: Offline and Online Are the Same Software-Based Virtual Environment for Rapid Simulation of Welding Postures

Using digital twin technology, a twin welding workstation is constructed in a computer.
3D model data analysis and automatic weld seam extraction
Welding Process Adjustment for Workpiece Model
Path Obstacle Avoidance
Model Analysis and Weld Seam Extraction
Use CAD technology to analyze the workpiece model and extract weld features from the model.
Various types of positioning movements
It can automatically generate multiple positioning motion trajectories, including laser-based positioning, eye-in-hand 3D camera–based positioning, and touch‑based positioning.
Path Generation Based on Process Parameter Approaches
The user defines the allowable range of the welding torch orientation based on the specific welding process requirements, and the software automatically calculates the robot’s welding trajectory according to the scene and orientation constraints.
Obstacle-avoidance free-space path
Empty‑move path planning can automatically generate empty‑move trajectories with obstacle‑avoidance capabilities.

The workpiece is placed arbitrarily on the fixture.

Even ordinary female workers can operate the equipment proficiently.

Minimum spacing

Welding Space: In confined welding spaces, the robot’s torch may be out of reach or unable to assume an optimal welding posture. The following diagrams simulate the required welding space via robot teach‑in; final approval rests with the technician’s simulation of the actual workpiece. For workpieces with open upper space during welding, the figure below shows the suitable spatial envelope for a Nikko ARH11501W36°+100L torch. For example, for a workpiece with a depth of 200 mm, the weld bead in the width direction must be at least 150 mm long, and the weld bead in the length direction must be at least 150 mm wide. For a workpiece with a depth of 250 mm, the weld bead in the width direction must be at least 250 mm long, and the weld bead in the length direction must be at least 200 mm wide.

If the clearance is too small, interference or a collision with the torch will prevent the welding path from being generated, and the system will automatically skip it.

Solder‑through‑hole joint process: arc‑closing and arc‑starting.

Batch generate similar welds and automatically sort them: In the figure below, only five welds need to be edited for this workpiece.

Model-to-workpiece orientation alignment (initial positioning)

1. For asymmetrical workpieces, scan only the distinct feature points; there is no need to scan the entire component.

2. Scanning speed: 600 mm/s.

3. When the workpiece length exceeds the length of the ground rail, scanning and shifting welding can be performed in two or more passes.

4. In the width direction, if the area exceeds the allowable range, it can also be scanned and welded in two passes (e.g., a single‑sided purlin support plate).

Dual-machine collaborative welding

Continuous welding with corner‑wrap effect

Multi-layer, multi-pass

Adaptive Groove for Box Columns (Currently in the Experimental Phase)

Adaptive Full-Penetration Welding (with Backing Strip)

Parametric Modeling (Corbel)

For commonly used bull legs
The software comes with a parametric modeling feature.
Does not rely on Tekla models
Complex bull legs can still be imported from the Tekla model.
In graphics processing, the column and corbel model in Tekla drawings is non‑separable; when imported into BIM 360, you can retain only the corbels while deleting the columns.

Parameter

Parameter	Value
Web length	600.00 mm
Web height	600.00 mm
Web thickness	8.00 mm
R Fillet Radius of the Through-Hole – Left Side	35.00 mm
R-Radius of Soldering Hole – Right Side	35.00 mm
Flange plate thickness	18.00 mm
Upper flange plate width	300.00 mm
Upper Flange Retraction Distance – Left Side	0.00 mm
Upper Flange Retraction Distance – Right Side	0.00 mm
Lower flange plate width	300.00 mm
Lower Flange Plate Retraction Distance – Left Side	0.00 mm
Lower Flange Retraction Distance – Right Side	0.00 mm

Schematic diagram

Custom Welding Process Library

There are 16 process tabs, allowing you to call up and use stored process files.

Continuous arc adjustment during the welding process.

1. Weld center point

2. Dynamically adjust welding parameters

3. Swing amplitude

4. Dry Extension Length

Ground‑rail work station — H‑beam processing efficiency

Workpiece	Equipment output (m/unit shift)	Manual output (m/shift)	Replace manual labor
12m traveling beam	80	50-60	153%

Mobile Mini-Program Production Report

Can be integrated with the MES system.

You can scan the workpiece’s QR code or enter its drawing number (stamp number) to search for the corresponding drawing file in the server‑based workpiece model library and download it directly to the BIKAI offline smart platform—no USB drive required.