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Robotic welders have traditionally proven to be an economical choice for high-volume, low-variability steel work. Behlen Industries of Brandon, Man. is proving that properly programmed 3D robotic welders can also be used economically for low-volume work with high variability.
The company is Canada’s largest manufacturer of steel building systems and is the first to produce frameless steel buildings. Some of the company’s building lines require identical frames and beams that can take advantage of more traditional high-volume robot welders.
"This line of steel buildings is a custom product line so each building design is unique, which means each frame and in this case each I-beam we’re welding is unique," says Sean Lepper, vice-president and general manager at Behlen.
"We needed to develop an efficient system where unique parts were being fed to the welder. Robotic welders aren’t new to the business. What’s new is the ability to program them quickly and efficiently for unique projects — that’s the technology innovation."
The company invested in a welder from AGT Robotics and a sophisticated software suite that takes the welding projects from concept to completion.
"We create design data in the form of a 3-D model and that will communicate with programming software in 3-D," says Lepper.
"That program will communicate with the robot welder and tell it what to do."
Company engineers have gotten the programming science down to a science, so to speak. As far as Lepper knows, it’s the first time this software combination has been applied to welding.
"Before the weld, we’ll see an animated simulation showing exactly how the robot would do the welding," he says.
"Collisions between the welder and the steel are a big issue for custom work with funny shapes, tight corners and tight spots that the welder needs to access properly."
If the animation shows that a collision would take place, operators will program around that.
"We also had to create a new production line that isolates the most optimum beam dimensions to go through this stream," says Lepper.
Typically, that doesn’t involve the heaviest beams. The company has found that the sweet spot for the welder is medium-sized beams used to make rigid frames. The company typically isolates 20 or 30 suitable beams ready to feed into the robot welder to maximize output.
"The 3-D welder really helps to reduce timelines by taking the peaks off the production cycle, particularly in July and August when we’re at our busiest," he says. "The robotic weld is a very high quality weld and the more steel we put through the factory, the more competitive we become."
While oil and gas industry work varies with energy price cycles, the company continues to produce buildings of all sorts, including projects for overseas customers. Sports facilities and airplane hangars, for example, benefit from long-span steel buildings that don’t require the use of posts.
Among the company’s signature jobs are the Peak 2 Peak Gondola terminals in Whistler, B.C.
"We also supplied the roof system for South Korea’s Gangneung Ice Arena, which will host curling in the 2018 Winter Olympics," says Lepper.
"One of our niches is producing buildings with very long spans. Gangneung is designed for an extremely heavy snow load and offers 200 feet of clear span. We were able to come up with a system that would require relatively low technology to erect."
The company’s frameless steel buildings are also being employed overseas.
"We built a frameless steel arena building for a Siberian FIFA soccer facility in Krasnoyarsk," says Lepper.
"It measures 105 feet high at the peak and 315 feet wide."
Behlen is currently considering the purchase of an additional 3-D welding system as early as next year.
"It’s a never ending battle to stay at the front of the pack," says Lepper.
"We have the good fortune of having owners who are willing to take the leap of faith to invest in technology — not waiting three years until it’s proven and everyone else is doing it."
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