Title: PROWELD: an off-line welding robot programming package with an interactive graphical interface

Authors: Tuna Balkan, M. A. Sahir Arikan, Murat Balut

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. ' Mechanical Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. ' Ankara Metro Consortium, Bombardier Inc., Ankara, Turkey.

Abstract: A PC-based interactive software package for low-level programmers is developed the for off-line programming of robots for welding, and is evaluated for arc welding using a six-degree of freedom industrial robot. The package is also capable of simulating the process graphically. Weld trajectories are either determined by making use of user input three-dimensional weld seam drawings, or can be extracted from three-dimensional workpiece drawings. A module is developed for easy weld seam input, which also makes use of open-architecture libraries for classical weld geometries. The software package consists of modules for automatic selection of welding machine and robot programming parameters by making use of open-architecture libraries. The user can also override and input these parameters manually, whenever required.

Keywords: off-line welding; off-line programming; robot programming; robot welding; interactive graphical interface; arc welding; weld trajectories.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.1997.036373

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 1997 Vol.12 No.4/5/6, pp.364 - 372

Published online: 02 Nov 2010 *

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