A vehicle composite member to be joined at a perimeter section to a ferrous vehicle body member is provided. The vehicle composite member includes a lightweight panel that is formed of a lightweight material having a lighter specific weight than iron, and a ferrous perimeter member that has been integrated with the lightweight panel. The perimeter section is configured by the ferrous perimeter member.

To provide a welding gun capable of improving the durability by effectively bearing the load in the thrust direction, and capable of providing a heavyweight and large-sized movable gun arm, even in a small-sized main body unit. A welding gun 10 of a guide groove type is provided with a thrust direction guide mechanism including: two guide pins 19a and 19b provided to an arm holder 13 in an integrated manner by penetrating first and second guide grooves 17a and 17b; brackets 23a and 23b being fixedly provided to the end portions of the guide pins 19a and 19b, and having a length sufficient to traverse the first and second guide grooves 17a and 17b in a direction orthogonal to the axis line of the guide pins 19a and 19b; and thrust bearing members 24a and 24b being provided to the end portions of the brackets 23a and 23b, abutting on a side plate 11a of a gun body 11, so as to be movable along the first and second guide grooves 17a and 17b.

A control apparatus for a welding tool includes a determination module for determining a normalized displacement signal, in which a deflection of a tong-shaped tool, due to an effect of a mechanical force generated on the tool during a work process using the tong-shaped tool, is compensated for. The control apparatus further includes a force regulation module for regulating a progression of the force which the tong-shaped tool applies to at least one component during the work process on at least one component. The force regulation module is configured to regulate the progression of the force during the work process based on the normalized displacement signal.

After selecting a robot for carrying out a welding operation at a given welding spot, the cross-section of a welding gun with which that robot is provided and the cross-section of a workpiece at the welding spot are compared. Furthermore, a determination is made as to whether or not welding is possible without the welding gun and the workpiece coming into contact. When it is determined to be impossible, a substitute robot for carrying out the welding of the welding spot is selected. With the present invention, the automatic selection of the robot for carrying out the welding operation for the welding spot becomes possible. Therefore, the number of steps for robot selection can be reduced.

A welding electrode and a method of using the welding electrode for resistance spot welding are disclosed. The welding electrode includes a body and a weld face. The weld face includes a central dome portion and a shoulder portion that surrounds the central dome portion and extends from an outer circumference of the weld face upwardly and radially inwardly to the central dome portion. The central dome portion has a series of radially-spaced ringed ridges that project outwardly from a base dome face surface. The series of radially-spaced ringed ridges on the central dome portion includes an innermost ringed ridge and an outermost ringed ridge. The outermost ringed ridge on the central dome portion has a radial inner side surface and a radial outer side surface. The radial outer side surface extends below the base dome face surface down to the shoulder portion of the weld face.

A robot system includes: an articulated type robot which retains a processing tool at an arm tip end portion and which includes a plurality of drive units that drive a plurality of drive axes; and a robot controller which controls the drive units so as to control a relative position of the processing target and the processing tool and the robot controller includes: a torque information detection unit which detects torque information on the torques of the drive units; a contact position estimation unit which estimates, based on the change of tendency of a variation in the detected torque information of at least one of the drive units, a contact position in which the processing target and the processing tool make contact with each other; and a position compensation unit which compensates the target position of the robot based on the estimated contact position.

To provide a spot welding system capable of shortening a cycle time of spot welding. A robot controller measures a time between a transmission time of a welding command signal to a welding machine and a reception time of a welding completion signal, after determining completion of pressuring by a spot welding robot, and subtracts a predetermined welding time from the measured time, thereby calculating a communication delay time between the robot controller and the welding machine. A spot welding system advances transmission timing of the welding command signal and the welding completion signal by the calculated communication delay time.

A method for welding multiple workpieces together includes applying a force to the multiple workpieces, generating ultrasonic vibration, transferring the ultrasonic vibration to the multiple workpieces to breakdown an oxide layer, generating an electric current, transmitting the electric current to heat up the workpieces, and synchronizing the ultrasonic and resistance heating operations. A welding system includes an ultrasonic vibration unit that generates an ultrasonic vibration and transfers the ultrasonic vibration to multiple workpieces to breakdown an oxide layer, a resistance heating unit that generates an electric current and transmits the electric current to heat up the workpieces, a workpiece mount that includes electrodes configured to receive the generated current and/or clamp the multiple workpieces during a welding process, and a controller configured to synchronize an operation of the ultrasonic vibration unit and an operation of a resistance heating unit.

Welding tongs (1), especially X-welding tongs (1) for resistance spot welding, with a first tong arm (11), a second tong arm (12), and a drive unit (2) comprising a motor (4) and a gearing (6) for rotating the first tong arm (11) relative to the second tong arm (12) about an axis of rotation (14) of the welding tongs (1), wherein the motor (4) and the gearing (6) are arranged coaxially and the second tong arm (12) is fastened to the housing in an abutment plane (29), which is situated on the motor side of an outer driven bearing plane of the drive unit (2).

A welding station includes a welding gun that includes first and second caps. The welding gun is movable between a working position and a maintenance position. The working position corresponds to a welding operation on at least one workpiece. A maintenance tool assembly is configured to cooperate with the first and second caps in the maintenance position. The maintenance tool assembly includes a cap extractor, a cap dispenser and a cap dresser. The cap extractor is configured to remove the first and second caps from the welding gun. The cap dispenser is configured to provide a new cap to the welding gun for installation. The cap dresser is configured to shape the cap face. The maintenance tool assembly includes a lift actuator. A translate actuator is respectively configured to move the maintenance tool assembly in the lift and translate directions with respect to the welding gun.