Gantry Style Stud Welding Cell

Project Details

MESH designed, manufactured, integrated and started-up a custom engineered stud welding cell for welding various sized parts. The capacitive discharge stud welding process was used to eliminate back marking and spatter.
This machine was used to weld studs onto a stainless steel sheet metal door to attach hinges, handles and other equipment. There were no plans for refinishing the product, so aesthetics were critical.
The machine also utilized a camera to find corners and centers of cutout features and locate studs in relation to those features.

Automation Equipment

Fixturing

Custom engineered servo fixturing.
Fixture featured multiple grounding clamps to evenly distribute grounding spots.
Fluoroclad SDFC was used on parts where spatter could stick. Additionally hardened tooling was used for grounding pads.

Final Project Outcome

Productivity: Cell allowed the customer to get away from batch processing. Additionally, the cell could weld studs 3 or 4 times faster than a human operator and do so more consistently.
Quality: Stud were welded to within 0.006”. Additionally, poorly welded stud issues were eliminated since the machine can hold the gun perfectly square to the workpiece.
Uptime/ Maintenance: The cell achieved an OEE of 93%.
Changeover Time: Instant and 100% automatic.