Development of a Robot System for Pipe Welding

Large amount of stainless steel tubes would be applied in the desalination system. If the tubes are welded manually, there would be a lot of the repeated work accompanied with the extremely low efficiency and the welding quality could not guaranteed either. So the best choice to finish the work is using a robotic welding system. In this paper, a robotic system to be employed in welding the pipes for desalination of sea water is introduced. The robotic system contains four revolute axes and could be mounted on a branch pipe, so it can both maneuver between the pipes and adjust to a wide range of pipes' diameter. Moreover, it is very convenient to take with for it is compact and lightweight. The mathematical method for calculating of the geometry of welding path of the intersecting cylinders is also explained. The welding robot, a digital welding power and the gas shielded system are included in the welding system. The robot movement is controlled by a micro-controller and it could communicate with the host IPC (industrial personal computer) through RS232. Other devices are directly controlled by the host IPC. Finally, a simulation is taken and the result shows that the welding system is able to meet the requirements.