Articles Tagged with ''robotic welding''

When the market demands products be made better or faster, manufacturers must respond in kind. For manufacturers in many industries, robots are essential to meeting these ever-changing customer needs.

Manufacturers with long histories and famous founders (e.g., John Deere, Henry Ford, F.L. Maytag) are numerous throughout the world.

Welding of one sort or another has been the No. 1 application for industrial robots almost since the technology was invented.

TRAVERSE CITY, MI—Robotic laser welding will play a greater role in body-in-white assembly lines, as automakers increase their use of lightweight materials, according to Peter Busuttil, director of technology for KUKA Systems North America.

DETROIT—The automotive industry will account for half of the 31,000 industrial robots expected to be sold worldwide in 2018, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

ANN ARBOR, MI—Robot orders and shipments in North America set new records in 2015, according to Robotic Industries Association. A total of 31,464 robots valued at $1.8 billion were ordered from North American companies during 2015, an increase of 14 percent in units and 11 percent in dollars over 2014.

ROCHESTER HILLS, MI—FANUC Corp. produced more than 400,000 robots in 2015, a record high for the company.

FRANKFURT, Germany—The International Robotics Federation estimates that approximately 1.3 million new industrial robots will be installed around the world between 2015 and 2018.

ZURICH—ABB Ltd. has received a $52 million order to supply welding robots for Ford Motor Co.’s assembly plant in Harbin, China.

BAUNATAL, Germany—A robot accidentally killed a worker at Volkswagen’s automotive assembly plant here. The robot pressed the worker up against a metal plate, crushing his chest.