11. Process Settings
Tutorial
This tutorial covers the different options and settings available to adjust in the process settings.
Prerequisites and Resources
This tutorial will cover a deeper look at the process setting type we looked at briefly in the Weld Setting’s Overview tutorial. If you haven’t completed that tutorial, it’s recommended that you visit that first to get a general understanding of all the various settings in weld settings.
Before starting with the tutorial, ensure to have the Yaskawa with Motoman Positioner example cell downloaded and imported into Verbotics Weld. This cell is available to download from the examples page on our website.
This walkthrough also uses the process settings example project 1 and 2, both of which can be downloaded below:
Video Tutorial
Step by Step Guide
Step 1 - Applying New Process Settings
Start by loading into “Process Settings Example Project 1”, which consists of a Yaskawa welding a small sample part. To begin, open Weld Settings and navigate to the default process setting named “Push / Drag”. This setting was created to allow the weld torch to complete welds by either pushing or dragging, which was achieved adjusting the Travel Angle.
Push / Drag Process Setting
Adjusting the minimum and maximum values for the travel allows for setting a specific range which limits the weld torch to only complete welds as long as its travel angle remains within this range. In addition to this, the third option for travel angle, optimal, can be set to a value within the range and will cause the weld torch to also attempt to complete welds at this optimal angle.
For “Push / Drag”, we’ve set the range to be -35 to 35 and optimal angle of 20 degrees.
Now, let’s take a look at the effect this setting will have. All welds should already be set to use the “Push / Drag” process settings, therefore go ahead and run the plan welds function. Once these have all successfully planned, take a closer look at Weld 3.
Watching the simulation of weld 3, notice how the weld starts off as a drag weld enabling the torch access to the corner. However, as the torch gradually gets more space to move, it shifts position and completes the remainder of the weld by pushing at the optimal angle of 20 specified.
Drag |
Push |
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By adjusting these travel angles, the weld torch can be restricted to complete welds as only a push or a drag. Return back to the weld settings window and take a look at the process settings named “Push Only” and “Drag Only”.
To create the drag only setting, the travel angle range was limited to -35 to 0 degrees with an optimal angle of -20. Whereas for the push only setting, the travel angle was limited to 0 to 35 degrees with an optimal angle of 20.
Note
Any weld setting will be drag only as long as the maximum angle is set to 0, whereas to be push only, the minimum must be set to 0.
Return to the main window now and shift your focus back to the welds widget. Focussing back on weld 3, apply the drag only process setting and run the plan welds function. With the planning complete, watch the new simulation for weld 3 closely.
Notice that this time, the torch completes the whole weld as a drag. Now go ahead and now apply the push only process setting to weld 3. When you go to plan, you should find that immediately this weld is no longer accessible.
When welds are indicated to be inaccessible, you can utilise the path troubleshooter tool to investigate why access isn’t possible for the robot.
Note
The Path Troubleshooter tool can be enabled in View -> Docks and Toolbars -> Path Troubleshooter. Once enabled, the Path Troubleshooter tab will appear in the bottom right next to the Robot tab.
Enabling Path Troubleshooter
Path Troubleshooter
Using the sliders in the path troubleshooter while weld 3 is selected, we can determine if there’s any position where the weld is possible to be created. However, you should find that regardless of each slider value, the torch will always collide with the part due to the travel angle’s limits.
To enable the robot to be able to complete this weld without being forced to change our process setting, we can reverse the direction the weld is completed in. Right click on weld 3, and in the context menu that appears select Reverse. You’ll find that if you now attempt to plan weld 3, the weld is both now accessible and easily planned successfully.
Reverse Weld
However, when applying a new process setting to a large selection of welds, you may want to quickly determine if each weld is accessible and if they need to be reversed to enable access. Go ahead and select all the welds in this project, then set their process setting to “Push Only”.
Now, go ahead and check their accessibility using the accessibility checker. Once again, select all of your welds and right click. This time, locate and select the Check Accessibility... option. This tool allows you to if determine the welds selected are able to be accessed by the robot.
Additionally, as of Verbotics 0.12, you will also be able to see every weld every weld that can be made accessible via reversing, and automatically reverse every one of these welds upon exiting the accessibility checker.
Check Accessibility…
Step 2 - Process Settings and Difficult Welds
For this step, shift your focus to the welds in the centre of our sample part, labelled welds 4,5,8 and 14.
Center Welds
When attempting to apply either the push or drag only processes, you should find neither allow the torch to access the welds. If you further take a look at the accessibility checker, you’ll find that even reversing these welds won’t solve this issue.
These 4 welds are impossible to complete as a drag only or a push only in their current state. One method to allow your robot to access these welds without having to forgo your chosen process setting is to split these welds. (See Weld Editing)
Select the 4 welds and open the context menu, then select split/trim.... The simplest solution is to split each weld at their midpoint, which you can do by setting the Split to at a distance, then setting the Distance to 50%.
Split/Trim Dialogue
Proceed to attempt to replan our now 8 center welds. You should find that now 4 of the 8 push welds are successfully planned. For the remaining 4, these can be made accessible by following the methods shown in step 1, either by reversing the weld or by switching to the drag only process setting.
Next, take a look at weld 2. Using the path troubleshooter tool, you should find that the issue isn’t because a push or drag only process setting isn’t possible, but in this scenario is because our work angle is restricting our torch from being able to complete the section of weld under the overhang.
Go to weld settings, and select Restricted Push/ Drag. Notice, the work angle has been limited to -20 to -10. Set this instead to -15 to 15. Now return to the viewer and re-select the Restricted Push/Drag setting for weld 2. You should now see that the torch can successfully navigate around the overhanging part to complete the weld.
Step 3 - Preparing Weld Process Settings with Positioner Orientations
For this step, start by opening the second example project, which looks at several examples of process settings which utilise the position option. Position is another option available in process settings which allows you to set the orientation the weld must be completed in.
Open the weld settings and focus on the list of weld process settings we pre-made for this example project. Choose one of these process settings and select the drop down box for the position option. You’ll see there are 7 options to select from, each one correlating to an ISO 6947 standard position.
More details on each of these can be found in our Weld Settings reference page
Position Options
Now return to the main window and select weld 10. While each of the 4 process settings utilise push welding, each one is set to be completed in a specific orientation. One by one, apply each process setting to weld 10, plan the weld, then simulate the weld to see the various positions that can be used.
In some scenarios, you may need to use a specific position in order to allow the robot to more easily complete its weld. Next you’ll explore an example of one of these scenarios:
With all of the project’s welds selected, set the robot positioner setting to “Example1”. This will lock our robot in place, as if the robot only had a limited amount of reach.
Now, go ahead and set every weld to Push Only PA. If you plan these welds, you’ll notice very little difference and see every weld planned rapidly. However, now go ahead and set every weld to Vertical Down. Upon starting to plan these welds, you should see that with this position the planning process is much slowly, and further notice that several welds aren’t able to be planned.
Weld Settings
Determining the optimal position for each of your welds can greatly improve the performance of the planning stage and can be useful for enabling access to welds which may be unreachable in certain situations.
With that, you’ve covered some of the more advanced uses of the process settings and its importance in verbotics weld projects.
If you’d like to learn more about the weld splitting we covered earlier in the tutorial, make sure to see our Weld Editing tutorial, and for more detail on each of the specific settings in the weld process settings, make sure to visit our Weld Settings documentation page.