Robotic Welding Maintenance: Increasing ROI and Reducing Downtime

Many of the benefits of robotic welding primarily depend on uptime. Downtime kills its productivity. ROI is diminished and profitability is reduced drastically when robotic welding systems must be taken offline during production hours. Understandably, manufacturers try to avoid unexpected downtime whenever possible.

Manufacturers will suffer greater consequences if they do not take preventative measures to keep their machines running. More time and cost will have to be spent to troubleshoot issues when robot maintenance is neglected. Discover how preventative maintenance can help your organization keep your robotic welding systems online.

Perform MIG Gun Preventative Maintenance

Many consider preventative maintenance to be the most important aspect of maximizing ROI and optimizing welding performance. Addressing minor issues before they become major issues saves time, money, and a lot of unnecessary stress. The MIG gun is often overlooked even though it is one of the easier components to maintain.

Wire Feeding

A MIG gun liner that’s too short can result in poor wire feeding and burnbacks. Ensure that you’re using the right wire size for the diameter of your contact tips. Keep contact tips clean to avoid any buildup. Check how much force is needed to pull the wire from the feeder. Too much drag indicates that there is a buildup of debris in the liner.

Consumables

Continuously check consumables and make sure there’s no excessive spatter or debris. An automated consumables cleaning device such as a reamer or splatter cleaner can help minimize buildup. This buildup will result in welding defects.

If monitored consistently, consumables can be replaced during scheduled downtime. Costs will be much greater if production must be stopped to address issues with consumables or the reamer. Also, choose the right consumables. The wrong consumables can create arc start failures and contact tip burnbacks.

Training

Proper training is an important part of a preventative maintenance program. All must be aware of potential problems that can arise. And they must also know how to help avoid the failures in robotic welding systems. If downtime does occur, employees must know how to respond quickly to minimize its impact.

Develop a Preventative Maintenance Plan

Robotic welding systems can capture and deliver a seemingly endless amount of production data. Analyzing this data can provide valuable insight into what’s happening on the floor. This insight can help you identify patterns in unscheduled downtime.

It’s time to create a plan that optimizes your robot maintenance to enhance productivity. This schedule will depend on how frequent your robotic welding system is used and how much labor is available. Most robotic maintenance can be performed with minimal interference to cycle times and minimal labor. Be sure to consider the cost of resolving problems instead of preventing them.

Learn how Genesis can help you get the most out of your robotic investment and avoid costly downtime with our 24/7 robotic welding service and support.