NRC & QUB Collaborate with Hutchinson Engineering
About the Case – the challenge
Having applied to the Connected Competitive Fund, NRC & QUB were successful in their application to develop a system to improve welding efficiencies and quality. This concept has identified many opportunities for local businesses including Hutchinson Engineering. The project, Robot Assisted Welding, aims to improve productivity by introducing collaborative robots as relatively low-cost welding aids. These can be used to assist with the assembly and positioning of components during manual and automated welding processes. As part of the project, Queen’s University Belfast demonstrated a case study of the offline programming and simulation of a collaborative robot assisting an industrial robot. This simulation showed the benefits of offline programming for highly realistic simulation of the physical world and the simulation of the control interface between the two robots.
It is well known in our industry that there is a shortage of skilled fabricators, the solution to this problem is the introduction of robotics. The Connected programme was key to allow us to gain the knowledge needed from NRC & QUB, to help us integrate this UR robot into our fabrication facility to address the skill shortage.”
Mark Hutchinson CEO, Hutchinson Engineering.