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Hi there, so this video is to address a fairly common request that we get with ENCY and that's to spend a bit more time covering welding operations. So welding is generally split into two different types of operations in ENCY. We have linear welding, so seam, tack, stitch welding, that kind of thing. And we also have spot welding.

These two are separated because they require different types of end effectors and generally the workflow and process is quite different between them. This video is going to focus on linear welding, which is a very, very simple and easy process to get into and set up using ENCY, since it's basically the same as any kind of 6D contouring using a robot. So we have this panel and set up here as an illustrative piece. So I'm going to set up a couple of very simple seam welds around the edges of some of these panels just to show the process and workflow so nothing comes as a big shock.

So we're going to add an operation and we're going to go with welding and welding 6D. And I'm going to, under job assignments, going to grab the outline of this panel here and just click on 5D curve. Now 5D curve allows us to define the various points of deflection and motion for the actual welding head itself as well. So if you have, say, two pieces being butted together that are different angles and you need to get that perpendicularity to just flip over a little bit, then this is perfect for that sort of application.

And as an example, I'll just drift this out slightly to the side and we pan around here. We can see that it's gone over to this side, which is not what we're aiming for. What we're looking for, in fact, is for it to move over on this plane by 30 degrees. And you can see how it's generally carried that flare out all the way through.

So what we can do at this point is we can tell it that that's going to be at zero degrees and this one's going to be at 30 degrees. So again, we can see that we've got absolute granular control over the two primary planes of rotation for this. And if we click on generate toolpath now, you'll see that we have literally got one very, very simple, automatically defined 6D toolpath. So let's quickly simulate that and take a look at what it looks like.

So I'm going to click on run. There you go. We can see how the robot head kicks out to the right there as it comes around this curve here. That's pretty much exactly what we expected it to do.

So to look a little bit further into how the welding process gets set up as well, we're going to take a look at the different weld types available. So under strategy, we can see that we've got seam welding here as an option. And if we click on the drop down menu, we've got stitch welding and tack welding as well. Spot welding, as I've noted, requires a completely different setup of end effector.

And also, this is available as a completely independent operation as well, which is generally better to use it through. So for the moment, I'm going to suggest that you just completely ignore the spot welding on here for now. Seam welding, stitch welding, and tack welding are all pretty self-explanatory. Seam welding being a continuous welding bead, stitch welding being a staggered welding bead.

So say, for example, 10 mil on, 10 mil off, and so on and so forth. And tack welding is very, very simple, just very light, connective, one or two mil beads scattered over longer distances, just to hold the two pieces together. That is realistically the bulk of it. We do also have weaving as an option here as well.

Now, the weaving in question actually uses pretty much exactly the same kind weaving tool parts that's available in the polishing process as well, in that we can choose different patterns for being able to define what we want our weld to look like. And we can define the length and amplitude of these, along with setting what the weave plane is going to be, whether it's going to be the tool axis, or if we're going to go normal to surface, which again is entirely down to what you need the weld to do and the place in which it does it. Beyond that, there's not really much else to discuss. The majority of welding really is about in the initial linear motion management.

So realistically, everything that we've done leading up to this, about contouring and about axis mapping management, that's the bulk of what you're going to be using. The actual welding applications themselves are pretty simple beyond that, but you want to make sure that you're able to manage the motion of the robot fluently before you start getting into welding proper. As I say, this was always going to be a very brief video. We will revisit when it comes to spot welding in another video as well.

But for now, that's a very, very quick overview of how seam welding, or 6D contour welding, to give it its proper name, works in ENCY. We'll catch you in the next one.