A research team led by Prof. GAO Lifu at the Institute of Intelligent Machines, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has successfully developed an intelligent steel pipe bundle welding production line, which is ready to be put into market.
As a crucial component within the prefabricated steel structure system, there is significant market demand for steel pipe bundles. However, the welding tasks involved in their manufacturing process are labor-intensive and involve multiple steps. Furthermore, due to the huge size of steel pipe bundles, handling and transferring them between processes can be difficult, reducing total production efficiency.
The "Steel Pipe Bundle Intelligent Welding Production Line" project was initiated in response to the need for automated production of large components, commissioned by companies. Focusing on the integrated production requirements of welding and hole-making for steel pipe bundles, the project conducted research on welding robots, weld recognition and positioning, welding processes, arc initiation control methods, laser cutting, and other technologies.
The fully automated manufacturing line is almost 80 meters long and can perform high-quality positioning welding, full welding, hole-making, labeling, and other operations on the steel pipes to be processed.
This significantly increases the enterprise's existing production capacity by more than triple and effectively enhances the quality of the produced steel pipe bundle products, according to the team.
Robot on automated manufacturing line is in the welding process. (Image by HFIPS)
