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US 12,103,119 B2Granted
Robotic welding system with orbital welder positioned on robotic arm
AssigneeCaterpillar Inc.
InventorsLeon Adcock, Michael Alan Brewer, Michael H. Noble, Kevin Joustra
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A robotic welder includes one or more motors, one or more articulating arms connected to the one or more motors, one or more sensors configured to image a wear plate for determining welding locations for welding the wear plate to a blade of a machine, and an orbital welder to rotate a torch head for welding the wear plate to the blade.
Claims14
A system, comprising:
- a motor;
- an articulating arm coupled to the motor;
- an orbital welder coupled to the articulating arm, the orbital welder including a torch head that is configured to rotate about a rotational axis, while the articulating arm remains stationary, to weld a wear plate to a blade of a machine;
- a sensor configured to capture sensor data associated with a plurality of joint locations between the wear plate and the blade of the machine;
- and
- a controller configured to receive the sensor data from the sensor, access stored part data indicating characteristics of the wear plate, and identify, based at least in part on the sensor data and the part data, a joint location of the plurality of joint locations, wherein, based at least in part on identification of the joint location by the controller:
- the motor is configured to move the articulating arm relative to the wear plate such that the torch head of the orbital welder is positioned proximate the joint location, and the rotational axis is disposed substantially colinear with a central axis of a passage extending through the wear plate at the joint location, and
- the orbital welder is configured to weld the wear plate to the blade at the joint location by rotating the torch head, about the rotational axis, while the articulating arm remains stationary.
5 more elements
A robotic welder, comprising:
- a first motor;
- one or more articulating arms connected to the first motor, the first motor being configured to rotate the one or more articulating arms at a first speed;
- one or more sensors configured to image a wear plate for determining welding locations for welding the wear plate to a blade of a machine;
- and
- an orbital welder connected to a first articulating arm of the one or more articulating arms, the orbital welder including a second motor, and a torch head connected to the second motor, the second motor being configured to rotate the torch head about a rotational axis at a second speed greater than the first speed,
- the orbital welder being configured to weld the wear plate to the blade by rotating the torch head relative to a first welding location of the welding locations, at the second speed and using the second motor, while the one or more articulating arms remain stationary.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.