There was a lot of automation and some neat robots. It’s like a big kid’s Lego kit and makes me want to get in there and start playing with everything.”Andy Hatch, Shaw Industries.
CULLMAN – On Tuesday, April 12, 100 participants from the 2016 National Arc Welding Conference visited Topre Corporation and Yutaka Technologies in Cullman. The conference is an annual event that features prominent welding professionals and manufacturers. The conference was held April 11-13 at the Alabama Robotics Technology Park (RTP). This was the first time the National Arc Welding Conference has been held in Alabama.
We caught up with the group at Topre.
“This is a group of attendees from the Robotic Arc Welding Conference at RTP this week,” said Tim Springer, welding instructor at Alabama RTP. “These guys are from different parts of the country. All of them have something to do with robotic arc welding. Coming into the conference we’ve had different speakers and different exhibits. We have vendors coming in that have exhibits there at RTP as far as different types of welding, different companies. All the companies in the robotics industry are there this week.”
This year’s Arc Welding Conference included Robotic Interfacing, Robotic Spot Welding with Servo Guns and MFDC Medium Frequency Direct Current, advances in Resistance Welding, new functions of Robot Controllers, the use of MFDC power – leading to lighter weight robotic spot guns and an introduction to Machine Vision.
“Today we are here to tour the facility and let them take a look at some of the things going on in there; to actually see what some of the robots are doing out on the floor,” Springer added. “This is the first time we’ve had the conference at RTP so this is a big one for us. We are really excited about it.”
After the group’s one-hour tour of Topre, they had a question and answer session with some of Topre’s employees.
“I was impressed,” said Dodd Riley of Shaw Industries. “There was a lot of robotics in one place; this is a very complex operation. We’re coming from a textile plant and basically all the automation we have is about 10 of the laser guided vehicles in a million square foot facility. We have a lot of opportunities and a lot of labor that we can do automatically. To see what all they do here makes me wonder why we can’t do that too.
“This is the first time the conference has been at RTP, so it’s a pretty big deal,” Riley smiled. “We came here from the other side of the state to attend this conference. The welding part is not so much of an interesting part to us, but everything from the robot itself and the controls.”
Another tourist saw the robots in a little bit of a different way.
“There was a lot of automation and some neat robots,” grinned Andy Hatch, also from Shaw Industries. “It’s like a big kid’s Lego kit and makes me want to get in there and start playing with everything,” he chuckled.
After the group left Topre they headed to Yutaka to see how robots were being used in their facility. Those who had already toured Yutaka headed for Topre. The participants represented different industries, but all were equally impressed with what the two Cullman facilities are doing with robotics.
To learn more about the 2016 National Arc Welding Conference, visit http://2016nationalarcweldingconf.com/. For more about the Alabama Robotics Technology Park, see http://www.alabamartp.org/.
