Only two years ago Shrewsbury-based WA Lewis had no automation at the company and all work was manually welded by its, largely coded, welders. Chris Eardley, project engineer at WA Lewis, says: “The Company had no previous experience of robotics and its introduction was looked upon with trepidation by the existing team. I had experience from a previous employer and realised the positive impact a welding robot would have on the business.”

The FANUC Robotics System 100 welding cell comprises a six axes FANUC Robotics ArcMate 100iB robot within a self-contained enclosure. Components loaded into jigs on a manually operated table are loaded outside the cell while the robot welds components within the cell.

Chief Accountant, Liam O’neill, explains, “Since we’ve had the FANUC Robotics welding cell our business in this area has trebled – we’re so much more competitive on these jobs now that’s its proved to be the most cost effective production solution we’ve invested in. So good in fact we plan to have another cell in the near future.”

Although the robot was ready for operation, after delivery, in a matter of hours, in reality, it has taken 12 months to fully integrate it with operations. This process has included having the robot cell coded through Lloyds for welding various thicknesses of materials to military specifications.

Chris Eardley says time savings and consistency of quality are both significant benefits from the system. “One example is a component that took 2 operators 3 days to produce 10 components – we are now able to complete 27 components in 3 hours. In addition it allows our skilled operators to concentrate on lower volume specialist welding while a semi-skilled operator manages the robot cell.

“We laser cut all our components in-house so together with the jigs, which we also design and manufacture, and the FANUC robot’s high degree of repeatability, we are assured of a high-quality weld every time. This has certainly proved to be a positive point with our customers as illustrated by repeat business.”

www.williamalewis.co.uk