Hardware producers strive to offer their customers a technologically perfected robotic cell. Two important factors that customers take into consideration are the overview of energy consumption and a possibility for optimization with regard to the energy cost savings.
This thesis deals with the electricity consumption of a welding machine, robot and positioner, three main energy consumers of a robotic welding cell.The first part of the thesis describes the consumers of a robotic welding cell: robot controller, main switch cabinet, robot manipulator, positioner, clamping-positioning tool, welding system, cleaner, two-handed stand-alone counter and command panel.
The robot controller performs multiple tasks and has the possibility to supervise up to eight robots. The power components are located in the main switching cabinet. The moving parts of the robotic welding cell are the robot manipulator and the positioner with the clamping-positioning tool. The welding system is composed of a welding source, a connecting package and a welding pistol. The cleaner carries out cleaning of the welding pistol's nozzle. The two-handed stand-alone counter and the command panel with all the main switches are used to operate the robotic welding cell.
By measuring the parameters of the robot, the positioner and the welding source we compiled two tables showing electricity consumption and designed two HMI (human-machine interface). The tables automatically calculate the electricity consumption for one, 100,000 and 3 million welded products in kilowatt hours and the costs in EUR. In comparison to the robot with the positioner, the welding source consumes three to four times more power, whereby the ratio mainly depends on the selected welding process. The electricity consumption of the welding tool can be best optimized by good setting and choosing the right welding process. With regard to the robot and the positioner, the most electricity can be saved by deactivating the servo regulation of the robot motors during the lunch time, when the robotic welding cell is not in operation.
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