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 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 weld-line generating apparatus includes a point-cloud-data acquiring unit that acquires 3D point cloud data of workpieces to be welded that are arranged in a predetermined space, an edge extracting unit that extracts 3D point cloud data of edges from the 3D point cloud data acquired by the point-cloud-data acquiring unit, a workpiece point-cloud-data generating unit that generates a 3D point cloud data component of each of the workpiece based on 3D point cloud data that is obtained by removing the 3D point cloud data of edges extracted by the edge extracting unit from the 3D point cloud data acquired by the point-cloud-data acquiring unit, and a weld-line generating unit 24 that generates weld lines for the workpieces based on the 3D point cloud data components of the workpieces generated by the workpiece point-cloud-data generating unit.

A method controls a portable welding robot to ensure good bead appearance even where a workpiece corner and a curved section of a guide rail are not located on a concentric circle and where there is a large difference in curvature between the workpiece corner and the curved section of the guide rail. A portable welding robot sets a guide rail with respect to a workpiece having a corner and performs arc welding on the workpiece while moving on the guide rail and a welding control device controls the portable welding robot. The control method includes determining a torch position on the workpiece via a torch position determination unit, calculating a torch angle at the torch position via a torch angle calculation unit, and controlling the torch angle via a movable part based on the calculated torch angle.

A method controls a portable welding robot to ensure good bead appearance even where a workpiece corner and a curved section of a guide rail are not located on a concentric circle and where there is a large difference in curvature between the workpiece corner and the curved section of the guide rail. A portable welding robot sets a guide rail with respect to a workpiece having a corner and performs arc welding on the workpiece while moving on the guide rail and a welding control device controls the portable welding robot. The control method includes determining a torch position on the workpiece via a torch position determination unit, calculating a torch angle at the torch position via a torch angle calculation unit, and controlling the torch angle via a movable part based on the calculated torch angle.

An embodiment includes a method of determining a collision-free space for a robotic welding system. The method includes fixing a location of a part to be welded in a 3D coordinate space of a robotic welding system. An arm of the robotic welding system is moved around the part within the 3D coordinate space. Data corresponding to positions and orientations of the arm in the 3D coordinate space are recorded as the arm is moved within the 3D coordinate space around the part. The data is translated to swept volumes of data within the 3D coordinate space. The swept volumes of data are merged to generate 3D geometry data representing a continuous collision-free space within the 3D coordinate space.

An embodiment includes a method of determining a collision-free space for a robotic welding system. The method includes fixing a location of a part to be welded in a 3D coordinate space of a robotic welding system. An arm of the robotic welding system is moved around the part within the 3D coordinate space. Data corresponding to positions and orientations of the arm in the 3D coordinate space are recorded as the arm is moved within the 3D coordinate space around the part. The data is translated to swept volumes of data within the 3D coordinate space. The swept volumes of data are merged to generate 3D geometry data representing a continuous collision-free space within the 3D coordinate space.

A robotic electric arc welding system includes a welding torch, a welding robot configured to manipulate the welding torch during a welding operation, a robot controller operatively connected to the welding robot to control weaving movements of the welding torch along a weld seam and at a weave frequency and weave period, and a welding power supply operatively connected to the welding torch to control a welding waveform, and operatively connected to the robot controller for communication therewith. The welding power supply is configured to sample a plurality of weld parameters during a sampling period of the welding operation and form an analysis packet, and process the analysis packet to generate a weld quality score, wherein the welding power supply obtains the weave frequency or the weave period and automatically adjusts the sampling period for forming the analysis packet based on the weave frequency or the weave period.

A robotic electric arc welding system includes a welding torch, a welding robot configured to manipulate the welding torch during a welding operation, a robot controller operatively connected to the welding robot to control weaving movements of the welding torch along a weld seam and at a weave frequency and weave period, and a welding power supply operatively connected to the welding torch to control a welding waveform, and operatively connected to the robot controller for communication therewith. The welding power supply is configured to sample a plurality of weld parameters during a sampling period of the welding operation and form an analysis packet, and process the analysis packet to generate a weld quality score, wherein the welding power supply obtains the weave frequency or the weave period and automatically adjusts the sampling period for forming the analysis packet based on the weave frequency or the weave period.

A method for identifying joining positions of workpieces includes capturing images of a joint by a camera, determining measurement data for the joining positions associated with a course of the joint from the images of the joint, determining a mathematical model of the joint course from a part of the measurement data, providing a curve based on the mathematical model for positioning a welding laser during a laser welding process along the curve.