Yaskawa Southern Africa has long been at the forefront of industrial automation in South Africa, providing cutting-edge robotic solutions for a range of industries. With a strong presence in the local automotive sector, Yaskawa’s expertise in robotic welding technology has enabled manufacturers to achieve higher precision, efficiency and reliability in their production processes. One of Yaskawa’s recent projects within this sector highlights its growing collaboration with D&L Engineering Solutions, a Durban-based engineering and automation company. Together, the two companies are delivering a state-of-the-art robotic welding production line for L&J Tools & Engineering Works for the assembly of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and safety critical components.

Project Overview: Enhancing Automotive Manufacturing with Robotic Welding

Yaskawa’s advanced robotic welding systems are central to the new production line, ensuring consistent, high-quality welds at every stage of the manufacturing process. The solution integrates both arc welding and spot-welding technologies, leveraging Yaskawa’s latest servo-driven welding actuators.

Multi-Stage Welding Process

The production line has been designed as a multi-stage welded assembly process, balancing automation and manual intervention to maximise efficiency and cost-effectiveness:

1. Initial Spot Welding:

• The process begins with operators manually spot-welding brackets onto C-channel sections. This step optimises labour utilisation while reducing the total automation investment.

2. Robotic Arc Welding Cell:

• The partially assembled component is then loaded onto a Yaskawa robotic arc welding cell, equipped with a turntable system.
• While the robotic system performs 52 arc welds (each 50mm long) on one side, operators simultaneously load the next component on the other side, ensuring a continuous production cycle.

3. Robotic Spot-Welding Cell:

• After arc welding, the component moves to Yaskawa’s robotic spot-welding station, which features a dual-robot setup and another turntable system.
• Each robot completes approximately 30 spot welds per component, allowing for seamless and efficient processing.

4. Final Manual Welding (Potential Future Automation):

• A final component is currently welded manually, though Yaskawa and D&L Engineering Solutions are assessing potential automation upgrades to further enhance productivity.

Yaskawa’s Advanced Robotic Welding Technology

At the heart of this project lies Yaskawa’s robotic welding expertise, built on decades of experience in South Africa’s automotive sector.

• Arc Welding Robots: Yaskawa has installed hundreds of arc welding robots in local automotive plants.
• Spot Welding Solutions: Yaskawa’s servo-driven spot-welding actuators are fully integrated into the robot as a seventh axis, enabling precise control over contact pressure, current, arc time, and hold time.
• Optimised Cycle Time: The robotic spot-welding solution is designed to minimise cycle times, as the welding gun’s opening angles can be synchronised with the robot’s movement.

By offering a fully integrated solution, Yaskawa ensures that its robotic systems can work with power sources from any leading OEM, such as Fronius and OTC, allowing manufacturers to select the best-fit welding technology for their specific requirements.

Delivering Value Through Collaboration

“All great partnerships start with great relationships,” says Gavin Walter, Director of D&L Engineering Solutions. “There must be a high level of mutual trust and understanding for partnerships to last and to succeed. We understand that when working as a team, we can deliver and exceed our client’s expectations – this, in turn, becomes mutually beneficial to both Yaskawa and D&L.” The partnership has proven to be highly effective in delivering customised, high-performance robotic solutions tailored to South African manufacturing conditions.

• Seamless integration: D&L provides the tooling, jigging, and process engineering, while Yaskawa delivers the robotic automation and welding technology.
• Scalability and flexibility: By combining manual and automated processes, the production line achieves optimal cost-effectiveness without compromising on quality.
• Reliability and repeatability: Robotic welding ensures consistent, repeatable welds, which are crucial to produce safety-critical automotive components.

As the demand for high-quality, automated welding solutions grows within the South African automotive sector, Yaskawa continues to lead the way with innovative robotic systems. “Robotics and automation already play a huge role in the automotive sector, with both OEMs and the sub-tier manufacturers being fully invested. As the demand for vehicles increases, so does the necessity to produce them at a higher rate,” concludes Rudi von Fintel, Durban branch manager for Yaskawa Southern Africa. The collaboration with D&L Engineering Solutions has resulted in a robust, high-efficiency production line that meets the stringent quality requirements of supply chains.

With a strong track record of delivering tailored robotic solutions, Yaskawa remains committed to driving automation excellence in the region, ensuring that local manufacturers remain competitive in an evolving global market.