EFFICIENCY ASSESSMENT OF A ROBOTIC WELDING SYSTEM CONSIDERING STABILIZATION OF THERMOPHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS

Abstract

The article examines the evaluation of the efficiency of a robotic welding system with consideration of the stabilization of the thermophysical parameters of the technological process. It is substantiated that the efficiency of welding robotization should be determined not only by productivity, labor intensity, and payback period, but also by the stability of current, voltage, torch travel speed, arc energy, and linear heat input. A calculation framework is proposed that relates the stabilization of the tool trajectory to the conditions of weld pool formation, weld geometry, defect rate, and production performance.For a standard welding operation, it is shown that reducing the primary welding time from 5 to 3 minutes while maintaining constant values of current at 150 A and voltage at 18 V increases the torch travel speed from 3.33 to 5.56 mm/s. Under these conditions, the arc energy per unit length decreases from 0.810 to 0.486 kJ/mm, i.e., by 40.0%. This confirms the necessity of coordinated control of current, voltage, and speed in order to stabilize heat input in the robotic process.It was established that robotization reduces the average deviation of weld geometry from 2.5 to 0.8 mm, the standard deviation from 1.2 to 0.3 mm, and the probability of defects from 0.10 to 0.03. For a standard operation duration of 10 minutes, the productivity of manual welding amounts to 48 units per 8-hour shift, whereas a robotic operation with a duration of 6 minutes ensures 80 units per shift. Taking into account the reduction in defects, the output of acceptable products increases from 43.2 to 77.6 units per shift, i.e., by 79.6%.The obtained results demonstrate that the production and economic effect of robotization is achieved through the combination of reduced operation time, stabilization of the thermophysical conditions of the process, and improved repeatability of welded joint quality.