Nowadays, many manufacturers of machine tools are investing on welding technology development. Apart from the application of loT technology for material analysis in order to increase the production proficiency, the dissimilar metal welding’s automatic system is under improvement to serve the electric vehicle (EV).    
 

Beginning of Change
Yaskawa Electric has scheduled to launch its basic software which has the qualification to strengthen the proficiency of the factory’s manufacturing information analysis with loT. The software has been developed into 5 types to support the efficiency of welding, quality control, and maintenance.
The software has the qualification to examine the operation of the spotter, in which it analyzes the movement of the welding head and the torque of the servomotor in spot welding. As for the arc welding, the software will analyze the angle of the welding head and the current transmission in order to find the cause of errors during the operation.      
These softwares have the capability to serve additional programs, as tailor-made softwares for customer’s utilizations. It can be said that they help strengthen the manufacturing potential with suitability and are compatible with customer’s operations.    
Meanwhile, FANUC has developed “ARC Mate 120iD”, an Arc Welding Robot, with improvement of design for better work efficiency by storing the existing external cable in the robot, leading to more efficient movement.  
In addition, there are prototype robots, which have been jointly developed with Kobe Steel, capable of welding Ultra High Tensile Steel with aluminum. It is the result of the installation of the dissimilar metal welding work process on the FANUC welding robot.
 
Roles in Automotive Industry
Formerly, the synchronization of different metal weldings was a difficult task with the general assembly of different weldings which were then held by screws. However, a responsible person from Kobe Steel has ensured that the technology of Kobe Steel provided practical implementation to the automotive industry amid the dramatic trend of reducing parts’ weights. “It not only reduces weight, but also provides more welding independence.”
Amada’s welding robot is under automatic system development in order to increase its marketing results in the automotive industry. The model for its marketing plan is “FLW-3000 ENSIS” welding robot which is installed with fiber laser, a product developed by the company to serve various sizes of parts with suitable welding and originated by the variable beam adaption.
 
Welding Difficult Materials 
In addition, there are more products under development to be implemented in welding difficult materials in EV industry. The new model utilizes laser welding machine with the power of 1,000 watts.   
Amada is in consideration whether to expand its business to serve the rapid growth of the welding market. Tsutomu Isobe, the CEO, opined that “It is expected that the sales revenue for fiscal year 2021 will be higher than the present’s with double digit growth”.