Baltic Shipyard says robot welding to speed up construction
Russia's Baltic Shipyard has demonstrated the use of a collaborative robot and a welding robot with machine vision, which it says will be an important part of the plant's modernisation programme.
Collaborative robots are controlled by welders alongside them who set the work task and monitor progress and are seen as being especially effective in welding in hard-to-reach places during the shipbuilding process.
The welding robots with machine vision, the Baltic Plant says, "independently scan the workpiece, create a three-dimensional model of it, determine the optimal welding lines, trajectory, metal thickness and the necessary parameters of the weld. Unlike traditional systems, this robot does not require manual programming or graphic modelling - operators only monitor the process and make adjustments if necessary."
Alexander Konovalov, Director General of the Baltic Plant, said: "The introduction of new robotic systems is a logical planned stage of the enterprise modernisation programme. We are preserving the golden hands of our welders, but we are giving them fundamentally new tools for their work."
The shipyard, which includes nuclear-powered icebreakers among its workload, said the new technologies could "significantly optimise production processes, reduce the workload on personnel, improve the accuracy and quality of welding work, as well as reduce the time for training new welders and increase overall labour productivity".
It said they promise to help speed up the construction of ships, with plans to test the welding robots in "key production areas".
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