A programming device for a welding robot includes a model obtaining unit that obtains three-dimensional models; a welding-line specifying unit that specifies a welding line; a target-angle setting unit that sets a target angle; an advance-angle setting unit that sets an advance angle; a coordinate-system setting unit that sets a tentative coordinate system having a first axis set on the basis of the welding line, a second axis perpendicular to the first axis and parallel to a face of one of workpieces to be welded together, and a tool coordinate system by rotating the tentative coordinate system about the first axis in accordance with the target angle and about the third axis in accordance with the advance angle; a position setting unit that sets a welding position of the tool on the basis of the newly set tool coordinate system; and a program creating unit.

A system for manufacturing boiler tubes includes a first spindle for receiving a first tube having a first weld preparation, a second spindle for receiving a second tube having a second weld preparation, the first spindle and the second spindle being rotatable synchronously, and a welding device having a first weld head. The welding device is configured to automatically weld the first tube to the second tube according to a control routine stored in memory to produce a boiler tube.

A computer-implemented method for reducing spot welds in a parameterized workpiece model includes generating a new design space (DS) from an original spot weld DS. The new DS includes a plurality of spot weld locations from the parameterized workpiece model with the original spot weld DS. The new DS is optimized to have a fewer number of spot weld locations than the original DS. The processor identifies a plurality of offending spot weld locations of the remaining spot weld locations in the new DS and a plurality of conforming spot weld locations of the remaining spot weld locations. The processor removes all but one optimized extension candidate from processor-selected groupings of welds while enforcing a minimum distance requirement. The processor outputs an inter-distance constrained parameterized workpiece model with an optimized extension candidate in each of the plurality of extended DSs to an operatively connected output processor.

A system and method to correct for height error during a robotic welding additive manufacturing process. One or both of a welding output current and a wire feed speed are sampled during a robotic welding additive manufacturing process when creating a current weld layer. A plurality of instantaneous contact tip-to-work distances (CTWD's) are determined based on at least one or both of the welding output current and the wire feed speed. An average CTWD is determined based on the plurality of instantaneous CTWD's. A correction factor is generated, based on at least the average CTWD, which is used to compensate for any error in height of the current weld layer.

A frame is described for positioning a battery using a vision system to determine at least one weld point on the battery. The frame includes at least one visual reference feature detectable by the vision system. The reference feature is used by the vision system to determine the weld point(s). For example, the at least one visual reference feature includes a pair of stubs that define a line, and the at least one weld point is determined based on the line. In a further example, the pair of stubs correspond to respective batteries, which are arranged adjacent to one another within the frame. In a further example, respective centers of the stubs are lined up along a center line extending from respective centers of respective end faces of the respective batteries. The vision system includes vision circuitry, processing circuitry coupled to the vision circuitry, and a weld system.

Systems and methods to design part weld processes are disclosed. An example system to generate weld instructions for display to a weld operator during a welding sequence includes: a processor and machine readable instructions which cause the processor to: provide an interface to define a weld program including a sequence of weld instructions for display to a weld operator during a weld sequence, the weld program including a plurality of properties; determine, for each of the weld instructions, respective values for one or more properties that are defined via the interface; and generate the weld program including the sequence of weld instructions by, for each of the weld instructions in the sequence of weld instructions: determining default values for the properties that have not been defined for the weld instruction,; and generating a visual representation of the weld instruction using the defined values and using the determined default values.

A mouth activated controller can be useful for operating equipment such as welders, drills and other equipment which may have traditionally utilized other controllers in the past, like foot controllers, etc. The mouth controller could operate in a live mode such as based on the pressure applied to a mouth pad, such as through teeth, or a step mode whereby a number of bites controls operation of the equipment for at least some embodiments.

A welding system includes a welder, a human-machine-interface, an identification-device, a test-device, a memory, and a controller-circuit. The welder creates an assembly between electrical-components. The human-machine-interface receives an input from an operator and displays instructions to the operator. The identification-device creates a label identifying the assembly. The test-device produces test-data of the weld-joint. The memory stores welder-process-data of the weld-joint. The controller-circuit activates the welder, stores the welder-process-data in the memory, determines whether the welder-process-data violates a quality-metric, determines a number of violating-weld-joints, activates an alert-device to alert the operator to violating-weld-joints, disables the welder when a number of violating-weld-joints exceeds a threshold, activates the identification-device to create the label, instructs the operator to attach the label to the assembly having the violating-weld-joints, instructs the operator to perform a test of the violating-weld-joints with the test-device, and stores the test-data of the violating-weld-joints in the memory linked to the identity.

A welding system includes a welder, a human-machine-interface, an identification-device, a test-device, a memory, and a controller-circuit. The welder creates an assembly between electrical-components. The human-machine-interface receives an input from an operator and displays instructions to the operator. The identification-device creates a label identifying the assembly. The test-device produces test-data of the weld-joint. The memory stores welder-process-data of the weld-joint. The controller-circuit activates the welder, stores the welder-process-data in the memory, determines whether the welder-process-data violates a quality-metric, determines a number of violating-weld-joints, activates an alert-device to alert the operator to violating-weld-joints, disables the welder when a number of violating-weld-joints exceeds a threshold, activates the identification-device to create the label, instructs the operator to attach the label to the assembly having the violating-weld-joints, instructs the operator to perform a test of the violating-weld-joints with the test-device, and stores the test-data of the violating-weld-joints in the memory linked to the identity.

A power supply system includes multiple power supply devices connected in common to a load. A first power supply device calculates control information for controlling voltage or current to be output to the load and controls the output to the load based on the calculated control information while transmitting the control information to a second power supply device. The second power supply device receives the control information transmitted from the first power supply device and control the output to the load based on the received control information while detecting current to be output from its own device to the load and transmitting current information to the first power supply device. The first power supply device receives the current information transmitted from the second power supply device and calculate control information based on the received current information and the current and voltage detected by its own device.