Advanced Welding Processes: Technologies and Process Control

Option
Manual metal arc
Gas metal arc
GMAW plus monitor
Mechanised GMAW
Welding automation and robotics 245
11.10 Cost analysis for 6-mm fillet weld in steel with various costreduction
options (data from COSTCOMP weld-costing program).
only 315 m of weld had been performed. In the same way, the high cost of
a dedicated CNC unit may be offset by improvements in operating factor and
improvements in quality (reduction in reject and repair rate).
11.10.5 The expectations
0 10 20 30 40 50
Cost of weld metal (£ kg –1 )
Assessments of the implications of introducing welding automation are often
inaccurate and surveys [294–297] carried out before and after the introduction
of automation illustrate this point. It is worth considering some of the
expectations and the resultant assessments before investment in automation.
Social implications
Social implications and, in particular, shop-floor opposition, are often expected
to be barriers to the introduction of automation; in practice, whilst 31% of
users in one survey believed this to be the case before the purchase of
automated systems, only 2% actually experienced any problems. Recent
reports suggest that most workers prefer working with computer-controlled
equipment and achieve additional status amongst their peers for doing so. It
is also clear from these reports that insufficient attention is given to involving
workers in the decision to automate and a review of successful applications
shows that successful implementation of automation does depend on the
commitment and ingenuity of the welding engineer and the operator.