A robot welding approach for the sphere-pipe joints with swing and multi-layer planning

Sphere-pipe joints welding is widely used in industrial applications. This paper presents a robot welding approach for the sphere-pipe joints with swing and multi-layer planning. Firstly, various coordinate systems are used to describe the geometric relationship between weld seam and robot welding torch. The sphere-pipe intersecting curve welding process is basically uphill and downhill welding. Therefore, this paper establishes a description model of the welding torch attitude, which parameterizes the attitude description and automatically adjusts the torch attitude during the welding process according to the change of weld inclination angle. To overcome the negative effects of gravity, such as deepening of the molten pool and reduction of the weld width, this paper integrates the swing welding technology into trajectory planning and gives a solving algorithm for the welding torch swing curve. The swing welding also can reduce the number of weld pass. Therefore, multi-layer single-pass swing welding is an economical and efficient way for thicker weldments. In this paper, a multi-layer single-pass swing welding planning algorithm is proposed, which can automatically determine the height and swing amplitude of each welding layer. Finally, the industrial robot Puma560 is used to carry out experimental simulation, and the simulation results are used to verify the feasibility and accuracy of this approach.