The Vectis Cobot Welding Tool aims to help manufacturers boost productivity by reducing the learning curve, deployment time, risk and cost of robotic welding. Powered by Universal Robots’ UR10e collaborative robot, the tool is a portable solution that is available with no-capital rent-to-own option. FABTECH attendees will be the first to experience the new cobot welder as it debuts in Universal Robots’ FABTECH booth B35083 in Chicago, Nov 11–14.
"We saw Universal Robots prevail as the undisputed leader in the cobot market, lowering automation barriers through ease of use and fast deployment,” saidJosh Pawley, director of business development and co-founder of Vectis Automation. "We wanted to build our cobot welder on this platform, providing the same user experience to welders that manufacturers in many other industry verticals now enjoy."
According to Universal Robots, users of the Vectis Cobot Welding Tool are typically set up entirely by the customer within a few hours of system arrival and welding within 10 minutes of setup – with no programming experience necessary. Vectis’ Let’s Weld Together programming interface is accessible directly through the UR cobot’s own teach pendant. Programs can be created, saved and later recalled in order to handle the numerous part numbers typical for high mix/low volume shops. The cobot welder can weld thick and thin parts, and the Vectis Weaving Software allows manufacturers to set weave parameters for cleanly tied-in welds with a Weld Template Library that provides parameter starting points for common weld sizes, such as one-click tack welds, square tubes with tight-radii corners, round tubes and multi-segment paths.
The Vectis system comes with all hardware provided fully integrated onto a 3ft x 6ft mobile modular fixturing cart enabling metal fabricators to bring the cobot to the work, or the work to the cobot with no anchoring nor dedicated footprint required. The Vectis Cobot Welding Tool does not need three-phase power but runs off a 120V wall outlet, the welder can run on anything between 208V and 575V – including 240V single phase.
