Leading the Segment | STEP Robotic Welding Solutions Help a Top ATV Manufacturer Expand Overseas
2022-07-07
Crossing mountains, wading through rivers, and speeding across snowy landscapes—for off-road enthusiasts, ATVs and UTVs are undoubtedly powerful tools for travel and adventure. Since these all-terrain vehicles demand aggressive driving, their weld seams must meet stringent strength requirements. Therefore, every time the manufacturer switches to a new workpiece, they conduct thorough weld-seam inspection and cutting checks. At the same time, all-terrain vehicles have high aesthetic standards, so the weld seams must feature an attractive, fish-scale pattern. As a leading player in the all-terrain vehicle industry, this company offers a wide variety of models, produces large volumes, and frequently handles small-batch, multi-variety production runs. This frequent product switching poses significant challenges to both the speed and ease of use of robotic welding systems.
Semi-finished covering parts
High-quality robot brand, STEP. Leveraging its technological leadership in thin-plate welding, we have launched... All-Terrain Vehicle Welding Solutions covering the welding of various products such as frames and body panels, with The weld is full, aesthetically pleasing, highly efficient, and easy for workers to operate. Thanks to these advantages, the product has been recognized by leading companies in the all-terrain vehicle industry and has secured bulk orders. After a period of domestic use, it has now gone global, achieving large-scale application at factories in Vietnam and Mexico. This helps our customers develop high-quality sports and leisure products for the global market, enabling them to expand their presence overseas and further solidify their competitive edge.
The design of all-terrain vehicles must meet requirements such as strength, stiffness, and dynamic performance in order to achieve better stabilization and vibration damping. The quality of welding is crucial in this regard. All-terrain vehicle body panels often use thin sheets, and their welding process is characterized by "short weld seams, numerous weld passes, and frequent idle travel." Due to their inherently weaker resistance to deformation, these components are more prone to welding-induced instability and distortion.
STEP adopts [a certain approach] to meet the technical requirements for welding all-terrain vehicles. Information feedback, intelligent control and improve the technology of welding robots Adaptive and intelligent Horizontal, enabling it to be realized. Initial weld position recognition and autonomous guidance, real-time weld seam correction and tracking, acquisition of dynamic features of the welding molten pool, adaptive adjustment of process parameters, and weld bead formation. Real-time control.
This leading ATV manufacturer, located in southwest China, is a top player in ATV production capacity and holds the No. 1 position in export volume. In terms of the critical welding process, the company believes there is still room for improvement in reducing weld cracks and enhancing weld fusion. At the same time, the company expresses a strong willingness to replace manual welding with robotic automation.
Faced with the dual challenges of rapidly increasing production capacity and difficulties in recruiting welders, the company has taken a comprehensive approach—starting with product structure, manufacturing processes, and R&D methods—and introduced STEP all-terrain vehicle welding solution. Thanks to the stable performance of STEP robotic welding stations on the production line, It can operate continuously for 24 hours. Significantly improve the quality and production efficiency of vehicle welding, and reduce labor costs. Effectively support customers in achieving full production capacity and efficiency every day.
It’s worth noting that local unskilled workers generally have a low level of education and high employee turnover. To help these unskilled workers quickly get up to speed, the engineers at STEP responsible for on-site training have taken two key approaches: On the one hand, they’ve thoroughly simplified the operational procedures, ensuring that workers can start using the robots with just a single button press. On the other hand, they’ve developed catchy mnemonics that are easy to remember. As a result, new employees now only need half a day of training from their team leaders to become proficient in robot operation skills, enabling users to completely overcome the challenge of finding qualified welders.
This collaboration with a leading ATV manufacturer has validated STEP robotic welding solutions, enhanced STEP brand recognition in the ATV industry, and solidified STEP Robotics’ leading position in the field of thin-plate welding.
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