Operational challenges.
Welding precision sheet metal enclosures for industrial switchboards presents demanding technical challenges:
Conflicting aesthetic and structural standards: achieving perfectly finished, burr-free visible external corners (laser aesthetic quality) alongside tight, structural internal reinforcement on contoured corners (MIG/MAG penetration).
Capacity bottlenecks and idle time: eliminating the inefficiencies of loading and unloading single parts across disconnected machines.
Accessibility and positioning: welding complex internal seams without kinematic interference between the workpieces and gripping tooling.
Strategic solution.
The infrastructure relies on coordinated overhead automation linking laser stations with articulated welding robots:
Automated infeed and orientation: a dedicated robot picks up the formed enclosures directly from the press brake exit, flips them, and positions them onto a roller conveyor equipped with three centering stations.
8-axis brushless Cartesian transfer: an overhead gantry consisting of 2 horizontal traverse axes and 6 independent vertical axes (fitted with vacuum cups and motorized mechanical grippers) handles the three enclosures simultaneously between stations.
Laser welding with 180° rotation: within the three brushless motor-driven laser stations, the enclosures are clamped pneumatically; after welding the first two external corners, the Cartesian system rotates the parts 180° to complete the remaining two corners in a single setup.
Simultaneous underside MIG/MAG welding: the second Cartesian carriage transfers the three enclosures while keeping them suspended, allowing three floor-mounted articulated robots to access the assemblies from below and simultaneously weld the four internal contoured seams.
Results and value delivered.
The plant maximizes production throughput while ensuring exceptional surface finish and structural integrity:
Rework-free aesthetic finish: external laser welding eliminates costly manual grinding and post-weld polishing operations.
Continuous 3x productivity: simultaneous processing in batches of three, combined with overlapping loading, laser welding, and MIG/MAG welding cycles, completely eliminates bottlenecks.
Consistent precision and repeatability: fully brushless kinematics and pneumatic clamping deliver uniform dimensional references across every batch size.
Range flexibility: seamlessly accommodates variable production batches from 300 to 1,500 mm in width without mechanical changeover downtime.
