Cover story: ESAB
ESAB advances welding automation range ESAB South Africa is launching a new and comprehensive automation range into South Africa this year, starting with the company’s new COBOT solution, while also including dedicated solutions for bore cladding with a continuously rotating torch (CRT), a tank welder for jack-up tank construc- tion, and several welding tractors for butt, fillet, rail and double-sided stiffener welding. “These COBOTs are made for welders, not programmers,” Bronkhorst assures.
ESAB UR10e COBOT is a fully self-contained, small-footprint and mobile robotic MIG/MAG welding system.
W elding automation, according to Jannie Bronkhorst, Technical Director for ESAB SA, enables fabricators to bridge the skills gap, increase productivity, and deliver consistent, high- quality welds. “We offer a diverse portfolio ranging from easy-to-program collab- orative robots (cobots) for high-mix, low- volume work, to heavy-duty automated solutions, including submerged arc welding (SAW) tractors and custom-built column and boom systems,” he tells African Fusion . He says the cost of adopting automation solutions has been falling for several years, driven by developments such as collabora- tive robots (cobots) and by enterprises of all sizes seeking to stay competitive in an increasingly demanding market. ESAB’s new UR10e COBOT ESAB UR10e COBOT is a fully self-contained, small-footprint and mobile robotic MIG/ MAG welding system designed to help fabricators increase production volumes and quality without additional people.
Intuitive app-based software enables the welder to choose the weld type in the app on a phone or tablet before moving the cobot arm to key start and end points around the weld. Then, welding can start. “Rather than replacing them, this cobot empowers skilled welders to take advan- tage of the automatic manipulation a robot can deliver,” he adds. There is no need to swap skilled weld- ers for skilled programmers. Powered by the Beacon app from Hirebotics, the ESAB COBOT uses familiar technology and termi- nology, enabling welding experts to quickly and productively deploy automation to achieve high-quality results. The fully integrated multifunctional welding system includes a UR10e robot arm, a microcontroller cabinet, a colour teach pendant, an ESAB Aristo 500iX power source with the Aristo RoboFeed3804W wire feeder, and a TBI RM 82W-22° water-cooled welding torch. A worktable surface with workpiece fixing brackets is also included. “Cobot automation systems
On the fixed automation side, ESAB SA is introducing a hot-wire TIG-based column and boom cladding systems for high-integrity small-bore cladding of internal pipe surfaces. key feature of this system is a continuous- rotating torch (CRT), which eliminates the need for a workpiece rotator. Simple and complex internal bore shapes can be clad, with an arc voltage control (AVC) slide accurately maintaining the distance between the tungsten torch and the workpiece, regardless of the sur- face profile. The system comes complete and ready to weld, with the column and boom mount- ed on a base plate, the CRT Head with a internal wire feeder, a 600 mm long torch lance suitable for access into internal bores above 50 mm (2-inches), the HMI interface for programming and process control, an ESAB Aristo 5000 iw welding system for powering the TIG arc, and an additional ESAB Rogue ES 200i for the delivery of hot wire into the TIG arc. From a process control perspective, an in-built data logging system collects data from the system and transmits it to a wire- less HMI/controller with a 10-inch multi- touch screen. Multi-page data displays and alarms can be accessed. In addition to the current, voltage and wire feed rates for each job, welding parameters such as weld depo- sition rate (kg/hr), layer thicknesses (mm), wire consumed (kg), and gas consumption
are designed to be allocated and used by a shop floor welder in the same way as a manual welding machine would be. But instead of weld speed and quality depending on the con- sistency of the welder’s arm, they become dependent solely on the welder’s teaching experi- ence,” suggests Bronkhorst. Bore cladding and CRT On the fixed automation side, ESAB SA is introducing a hot- wire TIG-based column and boom cladding systems for high-integrity small-bore clad- ding of internal pipe surfaces. A
Collaborative robots (cobots) are easy to program and ideal for high-mix, low-volume work in small- to medium-sized fabrication shops.
4
March-April 2026
AFRICAN FUSION
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker