Agile robot for complex welding in the energy sector

In the wind power industry manual welding is the most used manufacturing method, and automatized solutions are only used for linear welding tasks.

69% of all weldings performed in the wind industry are handheld and manual, which means that the work is cumbersome and performed under often dangerous conditions, involving hazardous materials, poisonous smoke, sedentary work, non-ergonomic working conditions, heat and radiating light, etc.

For wind energy to be considered sustainable in all ways, it is necessary to continuously improve working conditions while at the same time improve productivity and reduce the cost of energy.

Collaborative robots are fast to teach/programme and are designed for a safe working environment, making it realistic to move them in the production without complex processes to ensure health and safety of the workers. Although Denmark is at the forefront when it comes to implementing robot solutions, there is only one robot for every 100 welders in the industry. This results in both time and material being wasted, which means that 4% of the production costs of a wind turbine are attributable to welding. 

In this project, we expect to be able to reduce the costs of the welding tasks performed by the project partners using Uniwelco’s robot by 50%, proving that the global use of Uniwelco’s robot for at least 30% of the wind turbine manufacturing welding tasks will reduce the overall production costs by 0.7% leading to a potential annual saving of 2,404,596 tonnes CO₂ five years post project.