Welding robots have been used for decades, mostly recognized for their ability to automate simple and repetitive, high-volume welds with minimal variations and deviations.

Today, fabricators are facing a whole new range of previously unseen welding automation opportunities, according to industry experts:

“We regularly see a vast amount of welding work that would not have been feasible to automate a few years ago, where it is now much easier and more affordable,” says Mikkel Viager, Principal Advisor at HowToRobot – a leading vendor-independent advisory and sourcing platform for automation.

“Welding robots have become accessible even for fabricators with limited automation experience, and often provide good returns from production in lower volumes and with greater variations than before. It’s opened up a whole new set of opportunities that many are just starting to realize,” adds Viager.

Welding automation needed to solve workforce shortage

The automation opportunities arise at a time of need, when the reshoring of U.S. manufacturing is gaining momentum but heavily challenged by labor shortages. 

By 2029, no fewer than 320,500 new welders will be needed to fill the expected gap from industry growth and attrition (incl. retirement) of current welding professionals according to the American Welding Society(AWS). That’s an addition of 42% to the current welding workforce that will be needed in just four years. And many fabricators are already feeling the impact:

“I hear from a lot of companies that they are unable to bid on contracts and have to walk away from potential work because they do not have the labor they need to meet demand,” says Monica Pfarr, Executive Director at the AWS Foundation.

Furthermore, the labor shortages are driving up demand for welders and increasing labor costs to employers. Adding to the pressure, hourly compensation costs in metal fabrication have risen by 42% over the past decade, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Automation, as a result, has become a growing necessity.

“We’re seeing a lot more interest in automation and robotics from companies that want to explore how they can apply it in their own facility and have it work alongside their welders to solve their production challenges,” says Pfarr.

More use cases for welding robots 

One of the things that has kept companies from investing in welding robots is that they, up until recently, have been relatively difficult to set up and program. 

That, however, has changed as many welding robot solutions exist today that can be configured without programming knowledge. Instead, the welder teaches the robot what to do by physically guiding it through the welding path, according to Mikkel Viager.

“Teaching robots by demonstration instead of programming makes it easier for anyone to get started, and a lot faster to set up or change the solution. This makes it more affordable to automate welding in smaller batches and with more variations,” says Viager. 

While doing changeovers often required a lot of manual fine-tuning and programming of a welding robot to account for fixture positions and possible deviations, many solutions today adjust automatically without intervention. Using vision and other advanced sensing technologies, as well as machine learning, welding robots are able to adjust their starting point and ongoing position to account for deviations that would normally have resulted in a failed weld. 

“With adaptive sensing capabilities, welding robots generally have a very consistent weld quality, lower error rates, and are ultimately much easier to adapt to changing production circumstances,” says Viager. 

In addition to the technical advances, welding robots have become much more affordable. Many solutions that once required a lot of custom engineering have become available as standardized turnkey solutions, driving down costs. And the number of solutions and use cases is expanding rapidly, says Mikkel Viager.

Lack of knowledge causes hesitation

While the use case for welding robots is expanding, many fabricators are still held back by limited market knowledge. 

“We hear from many that it’s challenging to get an overview of the market and keep up with how the technology is evolving,” says Søren Peters, Co-CEO of HowToRobot, which independently matches companies in need of automation with suitable technology providers.

“Many aren’t sure what technology best solves their problem and what it’s really going to cost them, and this often creates some hesitation,” he adds. 

The U.S. is home to more than 1,700 robot and automation providers, including over 350 integrators specialized in welding, according to HowToRobot’s supplier data. This creates both vast opportunities and a need for guidance on sourcing, according to Søren Peters. 

“We often talk to manufacturers that spend more than a year looking for the right welding solution, verifying pricing, etc. That’s time many prefer spending running their operations,” he says. 

Through working with fabricators and other manufacturers, HowToRobot has found that a structured sourcing process that facilitates comparable, budgetary quotes from suppliers can vastly accelerate the process of finding an automation solution, often reducing the timeframe from several months to a few weeks. 

“It’s often about setting the right expectations and defining your automation needs in a way that hits the sweet spot in the market. When companies get help to do this and get responses from suppliers in a structured way, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of automation – and helps make it happen faster,” Peters concludes.