A welding apparatus has a guide rail arrangement with at least one guide rail attachable to a welding target. A carriage has a carriage housing and a rail follower assembly that is movably mountable to the guide rail arrangement for relative movement along the at least one guide rail. A feedstock source is disposed within the carriage housing and configured to deposit a feedstock material on a target surface of the welding target. An ultrasonic weld head is partially disposed within the carriage housing and has a sonotrode that extends toward the target surface so as to engage the deposited feedstock material and apply a normal welding force to the deposited feedstock material and the target surface. The sonotrode is operable to conduct ultrasonic vibrations into the deposited feedstock material and the target surface to weld the feedstock material to the target surface.

An electronically controlled apparatus for the manufacture of fused overlay plate including a conveyor assembly, a ground assembly, two hopper assemblies, a number of wire feeder assemblies, and a perforated cooling drum to produce a metal plate with a fused weld overlay that is harder, more impact resistant, and demonstrates a longer lifespan with respect to abrasion than known in the prior art.

A self-propelled welding station including a base frame having at least one front wheel and at least two rear drive wheels, provides and independent mobility drive system with a motor and steering means for a seated or standing operator, and a utility drive system providing a self-contained, motorized welder with welding leads for remote welding and a secondary electrical generating system providing a plurality of A/C electrical outlets, an air compressor assembly to provide compressed air to operate air tools and forced air, a plurality of accessory tool and supply storage containers, accessory equipment and a bottled gas system for welding gases, gauges and hoses. The mobility drive system motor is independent from the motorized welder so that the station may be moved whether the motorized welder is on or off, and the motorized welder may be operated with the drive motor system on or off.

A pre-buck apparatus for a vehicle body assembling system comprises a pre-buck section and a main buck section that are set along a transfer path of a floor assembly. The pre-buck apparatus is formed in the pre-buck section, and while the side assembly is disposed in each of opposite sides of the transfer path in the pre-buck section, the pre-buck apparatus controls a lower portion of the side assembly, and the lower portion of the side assembly is pre-assembled to the floor assembly using a first welding robot.

A system (40) for processing a workpiece includes a support surface (88) for supporting a workpiece (44). The system (40) includes a processing tool (92) movable with respect to a processing path. The system (40) includes a sensor carriage (408) movable along a scan axis and having a light source (476, 515, 550, 586) located to emit a light beam at an angle to the scan axis onto a target surface of a workpiece (44), and a camera (484, 522, 558, 594) configured to record location data of the light beam on a target surface of a workpiece (44) as the sensor carriage (408) moves along the scan axis. The system (40) includes a control system for generating a three-dimensional point representation of a workpiece surface from the light beam location data, to control movement of the processing tool (92) based on the three-dimensional point representation of a workpiece (44).

A machining route display device includes a positional information acquiring section configured to acquire positional information of a drive shaft in a predefined control cycle, a laser machining head coordinate calculator configured to calculate a coordinate value of the laser machining head from the positional information of the drive shaft and machine configuration information of a laser machine, a laser output acquiring section configured to acquire a laser output value from a laser, a display format setting section configured to set a display format of the laser according to the laser output value acquired by the laser output acquiring section, and a display section configured to display a machining route based an the coordinate value of the laser machining head and the display format.

In certain embodiments, a portable metal working robot system includes a metal working tool configured to perform a metal working process on one or more metal parts. In addition, the portable metal working robot system includes communication circuitry configured to receive control signals from a control system located remotely from the portable metal working robot system. The portable metal working robot system also includes control circuitry configured to control operational parameters of the portable metal working robot system in accordance with the received control signals.

An apparatus (10) for joining a predetermined geometrical profile shape from a sheet material (SM) includes a positioning assembly (12) including a base member (14) and a frame (16) that is operable to receive the sheet material (SM), to configure the sheet material in a predetermined orientation and to linearly translate the sheet material along a process direction (20). A Z-bar (22) is configured to guide a first longitudinal edge (FE) and second longitudinal edge (SE) of the sheet material (SM) into adjacent alignment along the process direction (20). A welding and forging assembly (60) welds and then forges a seam between the first longitudinal edge (FE) and the second longitudinal edge (SE) of the associated sheet material (SM).

The present disclosure teaches systems and methods for robotic welding of studs onto the surface of I-beams. These systems and methods will find industrial applicability in, for example, the steel erection industry.

Described herein are examples of tool based welding technique monitoring systems with sloped workpiece calibrations. Using two calibration steps (or one fluid calibrating movement), the disclosed system is able to monitor welding technique along a straight welding joint of any slope, be the slope 0/180/360 degrees (i.e., horizontal), 90/270 degrees (i.e., vertical), or any slope in between. The system provides an inexpensive, intuitive, and relatively robust way of tracking an orientation of a welding-type tool in relation to a welding joint and/or workpiece, and providing welding technique feedback based on the relationship.