Research Of Integrated Application Environment For Automatic Arc-welding Robot For Wire-drawing Bushing

The production of Platinum Wire-drawing Bushing (PWDB), which is a critical part for glass-fiber production, has long been relying on manned arc-welding. On the basis of the analysis of traditional manned welding process, a concept of automating the welding of PWDB is proposed by utilizing a Visual-servo-based PWDB Arc-welding Robot. The core of the concept is the real-time measurement of heat deforming of PWDB and the dynamic compensation of the welding trajectory by the positioning of the tip centers via microscopic machine vision.In this paper, the traditional manual welding process of PWDB is firstly analyzed, and the major obstacles of automating the welding process of PWDB are presented. The concept of Visual-servo-based PWDB Arc-welding Robot is secondly given, and the associated technological feasibility study is conducted. The hardware/software implementation scheme of the Robot is designed, and a technical implementation path is then suggested that PWDB-IAE (the Integrated Application Environment) is to be run on the AutoCAD platform. Lastly, Visual C++ and ObjectARX (an AutoCAD Value-added development package), are used to develop the 5 major modules of IAE.Description & rapid drawing module of 2-dimensional bushing draws the bushing layout rapidly for a range of bushings such as 400-, 800-, 1600- and 2000-hole, by reading the corresponding bushing description text-file composed by the user, based on a fine-designed set of rules of describing the tip layout for various PWDB specifications. According the given process conditions, planning module of welding trajectory can provide a multitude of welding trajectory planning for users to choose their own. Without any realistic welding process, simulation module of welding process provides the visual simulation. Parameter setting module for welding process is used to set up some associated welding processing parameters such as welding current, welding velocity, arc-length. Automatic generation module of CNC G-code is used to generate the CNC G-code automatically.