The Pipe Titan implementation at Cleaver-Brooks needed to optimize costs, part quality, productivity, and safety through automated welding. Images: Beckhoff
Dean Jacobs can describe the world of welding equipment in two words: bolt on. Welder Tools And Equipment
“People bolt on this subsystem here, bolt on that one there,” explained the principal automation engineer at LJ Welding Automation. “Soon, your welding cell has seven control panels and needs a massive power bar to feed them all.”
The bolt-on approach was born of necessity. However, as technologies advance and equipment end users demand more modularity, the design and maintenance of such systems has become unsustainable.
LJ Welding Automation recognized early on that an integrated approach not only provides a cleaner look, but also a key differentiator for machines in a bolt-on world. The Edmonton, Alta., manufacturer of submerged arc welding manipulators has customers in more than 50 countries in the oil and gas, alternative energy, aerospace, transportation, infrastructure, and health care industries.
When the company introduced its Pipe Titan system, optimized for welding 2- to 24-in.-dia. pipe, one of the first customers to acquire one was the Cleaver-Brooks facility in Stratford, Ont. The manufacturer of packaged firetube and watertube boilers had several requirements for the machine, including reducing costs, improving quality, increasing productivity, and enhancing safety. In addition, the LJ Welding Automation engineering team needed to maintain a clean design with highly deterministic control and system modularity for changing production processes.
As he has done before, Jacobs turned to Beckhoff Automation to meet the project’s challenges. EtherCAT and PC-based control technologies from Beckhoff helped consolidate functionality into a centralized control architecture and provide a flexible, fully integrated system.
The Beckhoff CP6700 economy built-in panel PC, which combines HMI and control CPU in one device, is Pipe Titan’s central machine controller. The pipe welding system has two separate positioners, each with its own Beckhoff CX series embedded controller.
“The positioners have their own controller for simple 1- or 2-axis P2P applications to rotate the pipe, along with functional safety and an HMI server. This way, they can function as independent machines if needed,” Jacobs said. “You can unplug one positioner, take it to the other side of the plant, and use it. We use this modular architecture on all our larger machines.”
TwinCAT 3 automation software from Beckhoff enables this architecture as an end-to-end engineering and run-time environment. Rather than the bolt-on approach, the software platform combines functionality for everything from PLC, HMI, and motion control to IoT, analytics, and even machine learning.
LJ Welding Automation uses Structured Text, JavaScript for HMI development, and other programming languages as necessary. TwinCAT helps the engineering team consolidate to a single tool chain to avoid switching among development environments. It also provides the team with advanced source control options to prevent confusion from and space requirements for unnecessary copies of projects with different dates.
A Beckhoff CP6700 Panel PC combines the main control CPU with a 10-in. touchscreen for operator interface.
“Also, TwinCAT Library Manager speeds up development by allowing us to add or remove large blocks of code instead of writing it from scratch,” explained Benjamin Vandenberg, automation engineering EIT at LJ Welding Automation. “We can save any changes to the source control to easily fix bugs, update the library, and continue to pursue continuous improvement of our products.”
For the positioner modules, the Pipe Titan uses EtherCAT Automation Protocol for controller-to-controller communication and safety. The welding system has multiple e-stops across its modules, which communicate via Beckhoff’s TwinSAFE integrated functional safety system. TwinSAFE works over the standard EtherCAT network using a “black channel” approach. As such, it supports modular machine designs without any hard-wired safety controllers to physically adjust.
By leveraging PC-based automation from Beckhoff, the team at LJ Welding Automation implemented a system that surpassed the requirements of Cleaver-Brooks. It reduced arc time by 63% on average, which is nearly three times faster, and led to a 90% reduction in weld cleanup time, 10% reduction in rework, and 39% reduction in filler metal spend.
TwinCAT accelerated development, and the built-in TwinCAT Scope software oscilloscope enhanced tuning of the machine. EtherCAT enabled commissioning of the machine from a single Ethernet cable through mailboxes that Vandenberg set up. Beckhoff servo technologies saved space through compact drive offerings and One Cable Technology.
Using the IPC Security Guideline from Beckhoff, LJ Welding Automation can safely remote into customer machines for maintenance or troubleshooting. But the team isn’t stopping there. The next phase for the Pipe Titan and other LJ Welding Automation machines is higher-level connectivity for analytics and continuous improvement. With TwinCAT, standard analytics algorithms, no-code dashboards, and secure connectivity via OPC UA are built in.
“We strive not to paint ourselves into a corner, because we often have to make changes late in the game,” Jacobs said. “With PC-based automation from Beckhoff, we have been able to make continuous improvements over the years. It has been a robust platform for us, and we're not even close to outgrowing it.”
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