Case Studies/Construction Machinery
Case 01 — Construction Machinery

Automated Welding
Line for Excavator
Booms & Arms.

Delivered to the Chinese plant of a leading global construction machinery manufacturer. A fully integrated welding line supporting 22 product types — robotic handling, seam recognition, welding, and MES connectivity in one system.

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Automated welding line for excavator booms and arms Excavator boom and arm automated welding line — FANUC robots, chain conveyor, MES panel visible
System Overview

The Constraint: 22 Product Types
Through One Production System.

Delivered to the Chinese manufacturing plant of a leading global construction machinery brand, this project required a fully automated line capable of handling excavator boom and arm fabrication across 22 product configurations — including Dagger variants — through a single system without manual re-engineering between models.

The client's previous semi-manual process produced quality variation between operators and shifts. The target was 60+ units per 8-hour shift with 12 operators — down from 56 — eliminating post-weld grinding entirely through better process control.

MES integration was a contractual requirement: weld parameter records, cycle time data, and production traceability via barcode had to be live from day one.

60+ unitsPer 8-hour shift
70%Labor reduction
22 typesProduct variants supported
>80%Welding completion rate
Operating Status

Delivered early 2022. Running continuously for over two years with no unplanned downtime. Customer rated reliability, precision, and production consistency as exceptional.

System Configuration

Engineering Decisions
Behind the System.

Welding Robot
FANUC M-20iD/25 — 25kg payload, 1831mm reach. Selected for the reach and payload requirements of boom and arm weld joint access across the 22-variant range.
Handling Robot
FANUC M-900iB/360 — 360kg payload. Handles component loading, repositioning, and unloading within the line. Coordinated with welding robot to eliminate manual transfer between operations.
Welding Source
Panasonic YD-350GS5 — multi-pass and pulse control. Pulse mode selected specifically to achieve near-zero spatter output, eliminating the post-weld grinding step that was a major bottleneck in the previous manual process.
Fixture System
Hydraulic clamping fixtures supporting 17 model types with one-click switching. Changeover engineered to under 4 minutes between variants. Fixture geometry designed for the actual dimensional range of all 22 models — not just nominal.
Seam Recognition
Intelligent seam recognition with automatic variant identification from part geometry. Single adaptive program covers all 22 types — seam parameters adjust automatically per variant without operator input.
MES & Control
Barcode-based program recall with real-time production monitoring and result reporting. Full PROFINET communication across all subsystems. Chain conveyor with coordinated logistics. MES integration tested and live at FAT — not post-installation.
Engineering Evidence

Failure Risk &
Engineering Logic.

Where a generic approach would have failed
  • 22-variant seam recognition requiring 22 separate programs — maintenance burden makes this unworkable at production scale
  • Fixture changeover consuming production time between variants, eliminating the throughput benefit of automation
  • Spatter from standard MAG process requiring post-weld grinding — adding a full manual step back into the automated line
  • MES integration attempted after installation — format incompatibility and network latency discovered on the production floor
  • Handling robot not coordinated with welding robot — collision risks and idle time on both systems
AGR engineering decisions
  • Single adaptive program with intelligent seam recognition — variant type identified automatically from part geometry, parameters adjusted without operator input
  • Hydraulic quick-change fixtures with changeover under 4 minutes — designed and timed as a production event, validated before delivery
  • Panasonic YD-350GS5 pulse mode — spatter near-zero, post-grinding eliminated. Verified on all 22 variants before handover
  • MES interface specified at project start — protocol, format, and update frequency agreed with client IT. Integration tested in FAT against live MES
  • FANUC M-900iB/360 handling paths programmed offline with collision checking across all 22 product types. Validated in full-cycle simulation before site commissioning
Production Result

What Two Years of Operation
Proves.

Result 01 — Throughput
60+ Units / 8-Hour Shift
Maintained across all 22 product variants in continuous production. 56 operators reduced to 12. No quality drift between the first and last units of a shift — the validation requirement, not just the qualification sample.
Result 02 — Quality
Zero Post-Weld Grinding
Panasonic pulse process eliminated spatter across all variants. Over 80% welding completion rate maintained. The manual grinding step that constrained throughput in the previous process is gone.
Result 03 — Integration
MES Live from Day One
Production data — cycle time, weld parameters, fault records, barcode traceability — available to the factory management system from the first production day. Two years of continuous traceability data accumulated.
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Start From the Constraint

Multi-Variant Production Starts
From the Variant Range.

The assessment for construction machinery applications begins from the actual product family range — number of variants, dimensional spread, changeover time requirement, and MES integration scope. Not from the nominal condition.

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Construction machinery industry page →
  • Excavator boom and arm fabrication
  • Multi-variant heavy frame systems
  • Automated handling integration
  • MES connectivity and traceability