From automotive to heavy equipment: When complex manufacturing becomes an automation opportunity

During a panel discussion, Johannes van Dorp, Business Unit Manager at AWL, shared insights from a recent large-scale welding automation project. The project raised an important question for manufacturers: how do you automate a production process when components are large and heavy, welding cycles are long, and skilled labor is increasingly difficult to find?

The answer builds on experience gained in another industry: automotive manufacturing.

Similar challenges, different scale
Heavy equipment manufacturing and automotive production may look very different, but manufacturers are dealing with many of the same challenges. Skilled labor is becoming harder to find, production costs are rising, quality needs to remain consistent, and companies want to create safer and more ergonomic working environments.

Automation can help address these challenges. And although heavy equipment components are generally larger and heavier, proven principles from automotive automation can also be applied to these production environments.

The scale and complexity simply require a different approach.

Automating a large-scale welding process
The project discussed at the ABB conference involved a highly manual welding process for large structural components. The customer was looking to reduce its dependence on experienced welders while improving consistency, safety, and scalability.

The application presented several challenges. Components were exceptionally large and heavy, weld seams approached two meters in length, and welding cycles were measured in minutes rather than seconds.

Both handling and welding therefore had to become part of the automation solution.

By combining automated handling with robotic welding, the solution improved process consistency while reducing the physical strain associated with handling large components. The application required a robot with a payload capacity of up to 530 kilograms, the largest handling robot AWL has integrated to date.

When size and complexity are no longer automatic barriers
The project illustrates a broader development in manufacturing. Processes involving large, heavy or complex components are increasingly becoming viable for automation.

That does not mean every process should be automated. It does mean that size, weight or complexity alone do not necessarily rule automation out.

Advances in robotics, simulation, controls and integration are expanding what is technically possible. For manufacturers, this creates opportunities to rethink processes where manual welding capacity, handling, consistency, safety or future scalability are becoming constraints.

Experience from highly automated industries such as automotive can provide a valuable starting point. The technologies may be proven, but applying them successfully means adapting them to the product, process and production environment.

That also makes close collaboration essential. Large-scale automation projects bring together the expertise of manufacturers, technology partners and system integrators, helping align technical possibilities with the specific requirements of the product and production process.

Exploring what is possible
The discussion at ABB’s European Value Provider Conference showed that automation is moving into production environments that have traditionally relied heavily on manual processes.

For heavy equipment manufacturers, the question is therefore changing. Rather than asking whether large and complex production processes can be automated, it is increasingly about where automation can make a meaningful difference.

Working with large, heavy or complex components and wondering what automation could mean for your production process? Get in touch!