Leading in its segment | STEP welding robots achieve a leading edge in the power transmission tower industry.
2022-04-30
Recently, the high-quality robotics brand STEPeng announced that its intelligent robotic welding workstation for power tower footings has once again achieved remarkable success—securing a bulk order from two tower manufacturing enterprises under China Electric Engineering Corporation (CEEC), which ranked 107th on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list. This marks another recognition from leading companies in the industry, following STEP delivery of its intelligent robotic welding workstation for tower footings to these two enterprises in 2021. This milestone underscores STEP pioneering edge in teaching-free, intelligent thick-plate welding technology within the power tower industry. Moving forward, STEPeng will continue to offer users in the burgeoning steel structure welding market intelligent welding robots and integrated solutions that “match and even surpass imported products.”
The Wuta Company of China Electric Engineering Corporation has been operating and using the STEP Intelligent Robot Welding Workstation for power tower bases for one year. In daily workshop production, Wuta adopts a “people take breaks, but machines don’t” approach, working more than 18 hours per day throughout the year. Practice has demonstrated that the STEP Intelligent Robot Welding Workstation for power tower bases boasts high efficiency and stable performance, fully meeting the demands of the power tower industry. It helps enterprises achieve rapid delivery while effectively reducing labor costs.
The steel structure industry is divided into equipment steel structures, architectural steel structures, and bridge steel structures. Power transmission towers fall under the category of equipment steel structures. A common characteristic of this industry is its focus on diverse product varieties in small batches, with a heavy emphasis on thick-plate welding and high requirements for weld strength. Currently, this industry is experiencing rapid growth. Welding is a critical technology and quality-control method for both the fabrication and installation of steel structures, playing an indispensable role in construction projects. Moreover, the number of welders required is substantial, and the cost of hiring welders is high, while recruitment difficulties are particularly pronounced—making this sector a promising untapped market for welding robots.
Power transmission towers represent a typical project-based industry. Due to the diverse forms of steel structures and the high degree of product customization, this sector is characterized by a wide variety of products produced in small batches. Moreover, since all plates used are thick, some products even have stringent requirements for weld quality grades, and during the manufacturing process, deviations in assembly alignment and material cutting can lead to poor product consistency. As a result, robots have historically been unable to replace manual welding operations.
Addressing the pain points of users in the steel structure industry, STEPeng has innovatively adopted parametric programming and laser-guided welding technology to develop a smart robotic workstation for tower base welding. With this system, users only need to input simple workpiece dimension information; the robot then uses a laser recognition system to acquire the weld seam trajectory and automatically retrieves parameters from its welding expert database, enabling hands-free teaching and intelligent welding.
Advantages of the STEP Welding Robot System
□ The system primarily consists of a STEP SA8/1800 robot, laser sensors, an Outei Pulse MIG-630RP welding power source, and a heavy-duty positioner.
□ Based on the characteristics of multi-variety, small-batch products, STEP Robot has developed a parametric programming software through open-sourcing its underlying code and conducting deep customization. This allows on-site workers to quickly start production simply by entering basic workpiece dimension information.
□ To address the issue of poor workpiece consistency caused by deviations in on-site component alignment and material cutting, this system integrates welding process requirements, workpiece information identified by laser sensors, and accessibility constraints to precisely plan welding trajectories and guide robots to accurately reach weld positions. It can recognize various types of welds, including lap joints, butt joints, and corner joints, and effectively resists arc glare, spatter, and high temperatures.
Finished robotic welding tower base workpiece
The Pulse MIG-630RP welding power source is an industry-specific welding power supply developed through long-term collaboration between STEP and its strategic partner, Shandong Aotai Electric. It is designed specifically for welding thick and extra-thick plates. This welding power supply features a deep-penetration welding process, resulting in weld beads that are fuller, more uniform, and more stable compared to manually welded joints, while also significantly improving work efficiency.
In the future, STEP will deepen its focus on the power transmission tower industry, providing more diversified, intelligent robotic solutions for this sector. Furthermore, the technological achievements and application experience accumulated in the power transmission tower industry will be extended and applied to the emerging blue ocean of the steel structure industry.
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