Need welders? Automation can help!

Recognizing the skill sets of your welders can help you to identify someone who is primed to be a robotic programmer.

If you talk to someone who owns or runs a metal fabrication shop, one of the first things you might hear them say is that business is good and production demands are increasing. Quickly on the heels of that comment that same person might tell you how hard it is to find welders. And without those welders, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to keep up with orders. These business owners’ comments overlay some troubling statistics.

According to the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA), 40 percent of its member companies are turning away projects because they don’t have enough welders. The American Welding Society (AWS) reported a shortage of 200,000 welders in the U.S. in 2010 and projects that by 2026 the shortfall of skilled welders will be 372,000. AWS also noted that approximately 500,000 skilled welders currently in the workforce are, on average, in their mid-50s and will soon retire at a rate greater than replacements can fill those vacancies.

In addition, a recent report by Deloitte Consulting LLP stated that people with the right skills to enter manufacturing jobs like welding still view the industry as “dirty, dumb, dangerous, and disappearing,” in spite of the fact that today’s manufacturing plants can be exceptionally clean paragons of innovation and high-tech processes.

Another troubling aspect of this labor shortage is that when manufacturers do find individuals interested in becoming welders, many of the candidates can’t pass pre-employment screening.

One way you can overcome a labor shortage is to introduce automation to the shop floor. Automation and robotics can help you fill in production gaps by performing the welds on mundane or repeatable parts, saving the skilled welders for the more complex weld sequences. The difficulty, however, is finding a robotic programmer/operator who possesses the requisite training and certifications or, better yet, identifying a person with the appropriate skill sets who can make the successful transition from welder to robotic welding operator.

Robotics in a Nutshell

According to a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) survey conducted by Yaskawa Motoman in partnership with the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) about the state of robotics education in America, 59 percent of schools said they were moving toward career-based robotics education rather than a skills-based approach. In other words, schools are aligning their robotics programs with what employers specifically need. Developing students to become workers who contribute the day they enter the workforce is an agenda to which many schools subscribe.

Industry also has responded with many robot manufacturers now offering educators scaled-down robotic workcells that include industrial robots in a small, portable platform at a lower price than production systems. These can facilitate classroom instruction without industrial utilities and can often be funded by grants for workforce development.

In addition, AWS has launched a program for certified robotic arc welding (CRAW) personnel. It outlines skills and knowledge that a robot operator, technician, and engineer should possess. Similar to certifications for manual welders, personnel must pass written and skill-based tests for programming a robot.

Long story short, even if you can’t find a dedicated robotic programmer, there are ways for you to train someone you already have on staff.

You’ve Got to Have Skills

While education is important, it is often the “soft” skills that allow a welder to become a good robotic programmer. Here are some important qualities a welder should possess to be considered as an ideal candidate to make the transition to robotic welding programmer.

Education and industry are working together to make robotics integration a more seamless transition.

First, a potential robotic programmer should have experience in gas metal arc welding (GMAW) or gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). To put it simply, it is easier to train a welder how to program a robot than it is to train a computer programmer how to weld. Showing initiative and motivation to learn and understand how to get the most out of a robot also is extremely important. You don’t want a person’s lack of motivation to be the reason that you aren’t getting the desired level of productivity out of the robot.

Second, a potential robotic programmer should have a basic understanding of logic and a willingness to troubleshoot and solve problems. Fortunately, many welding students already have good mechanical aptitude.

Finally, they should possess basic computer and math skills and be able to read blueprints, 3-D drawings, and weld symbols.

How Industry Can Close the Gap

As secondary and vocational schools add STEM curriculum to improve workforce skills, robot manufacturers can also make it easier for operators to program them. In years past, some robot manufacturers have attempted to do this through the offline programming of a robot. While offline programming has its advantages, such as accurate 3-D modeling to verify operation before the system is built, it has drawbacks too. Offline programming with simulation software generally requires more skill and is more helpful to those already versed in things like computer-aided design (CAD).

An alternative to offline programming is instructing a robot by leading the robot’s arm along the work path from beginning to end, and having the robot repeat the process. Applications like these were available in the 1990s, mainly for industrial painting. The robot memorized the painter’s spray gun path and repeated it. Essentially, a programmer made the robot mimic what the human painter knew how to do. The trouble with this type of programming was that it still required a lot of manipulation of the robot arm and it could not achieve the accuracy required for arc welding. To apply more welding automation in job shops, a robotic welding system is needed that is simpler to program and quick to retask for small batches.

The classic argument against a robot for a job shop is that the parts can be manually welded quicker than the time it takes to program the robot. Robot programming needs to take a cue from the smartphone market and make the technology easier to use and more intuitive. If a job shop can leapfrog the need to understand in-depth robot programming and reduce the time to record welding trajectories, it can get a quick return on investment with high-mix, low-volume batch runs.

The following example demonstrates how one fabricator trained its welders in robotic programming.

Example: Rapid-Line finds a way through the shortage

One company that has put simplified robot teaching into practice is Rapid-Line, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based full-service metal fabricator and contract manufacturer. The company has several arc welding robots in use based on monthly volumes forecast by its office furniture customers.

Rapid-Line President Rick Van Dis said that the shift to an Internet purchasing model has resulted in his customers requiring a much quicker turnaround. As Rapid-Line’s average lot size has decreased along with its lead times, employees are doing up to 800 jobs a week.

According to Rapid-Line, a high level of skill was required for robot programming, and the job diversity continued to require additional programming. Because of the cost of robotic training, the company can afford to train only a few welders at a time. In response, Rapid-Line turned to a teaching device, Kinetiq Teaching™, to allow its welders to perform robot programming.

The device was developed with the combined features of direct teaching, or hand guiding the robot to positions, and an icon-based user interface. This device helps alleviate the problem of having to find skilled welders in a tight market by simplifying programming tasks and reducing training needs for workers. Skilled manual welders can increase their productivity via automation by having the robot perform repetitive tasks.

“The … tool gets you into your first robot without spending $25,000 on training,” said Van Dis. “It will help our younger guys get started with programming.”

Six welders at Rapid-Line took part in a short training exercise. All were able to understand the process and make a simple robot weld program in 15 minutes or less after watching the instructor perform the exercise first.

The welders took turns programming the robot; those who went later in the teaching order improved their times and quality over the initial trainees because they learned by watching. This underscored how easy it was to grasp the training.

One of the welders repeated the programming exercise four times because he was interested in besting each of his program times.

His programming time dropped from a high of 9.1 minutes on the first attempt to 5.3 minutes on the last pass.

The following day, one of the welders used the device to program a weld task for a production part, quickly applying what he learned. The benefit for Rapid-Line and other job shops is that such a teaching device allows manual welders already on staff to quickly program robots for small batch runs with less training.

Automation enables metal fabricators to take on additional business that they might otherwise have to turn down. It’s a way forward for manufacturers that have wondered how they can navigate the increasingly strong headwind of labor shortages.

Photos courtesy of Yaskawa Motoman.