Project Scope:
Honeycomb Core Welding Machine
The SDC team previously designed and built a high-performing automated machine to produce a metal honeycomb core for our customer in this specialized industry. Due to its ability to produce high quality material and customizable configurations at an increased rate, the customer returned for an updated version of this machine.
Four welders and weld wheels with servo-driven and synchronized welding motion
Servo-driven forming gear, pin plates, and backup electrodes
Servo-driven, electronically geared weld carriage and payout gears
Improved blanket gripper
Power despooler with dancer and tension control
Servo-driven mounted strip cutter with XY positioning
Keyence vision system inspecting weld quality on the fly
The Solution:
We took our original welding and seaming machine, modified it according to customer specifications, and upgraded with the latest technology. To start the process, a titanium strip is despooled into the machine. The strip is punched and fed into a crimping mechanism. A stationary table grips and aligns the strip to start the assembly process and indexes the honeycomb core out of the machine as new strips are welded on.
As the servo-driven station horizontally indexes, four welders with servo-driven wheels and backup electrodes join the crimped titanium strip, starting the process of creating the honeycomb core. The Keyence vision system inspects the weld quality on the fly as the strip is being welded to the existing core. The ends of the strip are re-gripped and cut with the XY gantry. This process is continued until the desired length is reached.
Machine Rate: 0.5 seconds per weld
