Can tack welding be automated?
Tacking is often a better first welding project than final welding, because it needs less precision and it unblocks the welders you already have.
What the job actually is
Somebody holds or clamps components in position and lays down short tacks to hold the assembly before final welding. It is fiddly, it is upstream of the skilled work, and it consumes welder hours that could go to actual welding.
Signs it is worth automating
- Your skilled welders spend meaningful time tacking rather than welding.
- Assemblies repeat enough to fixture even loosely.
- Tack placement is consistent and documented or easily documented.
- You want a first welding project with lower risk than full production welding.
What the cell looks like
A cobot or fenced arm with a standard torch over a fixture that locates the components. Tolerances are looser than final welding, so fixturing is simpler and cheaper. Often paired with a manual final weld station downstream.
This is one job inside a bigger family. The welding guide covers the equipment classes, the cost ranges, and the disqualifiers for all of it.
When the answer is no
Read this part first
We would rather talk you out of a bad purchase than into one. If any of these describe your version of this job, the honest answer is probably not yet.
- Components vary enough that a fixture cannot locate them repeatably.
- Your assemblies are one off, so fixture cost has nothing to amortize against.
- Fit up quality upstream is poor, so the tack position moves. Fix the cutting or forming first.
- Volume is low enough that a fixture and a person is the cheaper answer.
What an engineer has to verify
- Component fit up variation coming out of your cutting and forming.
- Fixture concept and cost for the assemblies that repeat most.
- Tack schedule: how many, where, and whether it is documented.
- Whether the downstream welder accepts robot placed tacks.
- Cycle time against how many assemblies you actually tack per week.
Safety is not on that list because it is not ours to determine. Cell design, guarding and the risk assessment belong to an independent certified integrator, every time.
Someone has already done this
Four cobot welding cells at an Ohio fabricator
Raymath, an Ohio metal fabricator, could not hire enough welders to keep up with demand, so it moved repetitive MIG work onto cobot welding cells and later added a cobot TIG system...
A bracket shop puts its first welding cobot to work in two days
Iron Supports, a small fabricator that grew out of a garage operation, was turning down work because it could not hire or train welders fast enough. The shop bought a packaged cobo...
See it run
Two clips of this job actually running, from two different manufacturers. Both are the makers' own marketing footage, showing a cell under good conditions with a part it was set up for, so watch them for what the motion looks like rather than as evidence of what your rate would be.
A cobot runs a welding torch along a fixtured part, putting down steady beads that a person would otherwise do by hand.
A pair of welding robots move around an automotive suspension piece and weld several joints while a positioner turns the work.
Is your version of this job automatable?
Tell Joe what you are running. He will give you a straight preliminary read, and he will tell you if a robot is the wrong answer for your situation.
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