Böhler Welding

The wire that turns a robot into a welder

Böhler Welding is a brand of the Austrian voestalpine group. In its brochure the company speaks of more than 2,000 products for welding worldwide, certified by well-respected institutes and adapted to industry requirements. For a reader of Robolupa this is an unusual entry: Böhler makes no actuators, sensors or robots, only the consumables without which a robotic welding station does not weld.

EMK Ultra

The EMK Ultra portfolio consists of coppered solid wires for non-alloyed and low-alloyed steels. The manufacturer stresses their suitability for both manual and fully automatic welding: good feeding on long liners, high deposition rates, less spatter and fewer silicates. Key to this is CST (Controlled Surface Treatment), a controlled treatment of the wire surface after drawing. According to the brochure it keeps the copper coating uniform, protects against oxidation and ensures a stable arc and reliable feeding without clogging or flaking. The portfolio covers base materials with a yield strength up to 420 or 460 MPa. The EMK 4-Ultra variant is described as suited to mild steel: light construction, repair, metal furniture and light machinery.

Packaging matters to a robot

In mechanized welding, continuous feeding is what counts, so packaging matters too. Böhler offers drum systems of 250 and 500 kg, S200 spools of 5 kg and the BS300 basket for 15 and 18 kg. For installations where the distance between the drum and the feeder exceeds 40 m, LD Glide liner systems and LD Feed Booster units are available. Details like these decide the downtime of a welding cell more than the cobots model or industrial robot does.

Where it meets robotics

A welding robot is usually an industrial arm (FANUC, ABB Robotics, KUKA) with a torch and a wire feeder; the choice is discussed in “Cobot or Industrial Robot”. Cobots also do welding — the choice depends on the series, tolerances and the safety requirements in “Robot Safety Standards”. Matching the wire to the material and process affects weld repeatability and the amount of rework. That is why Böhler belongs with factories settings and steel-processing plants, not with the world of humanoids from “How Does a Humanoid Robot Work”.

Weld-seam position in welding cells is usually checked with optical sensors, for example from SICK; that is a separate layer, unrelated to the wire itself.

What the materials say about the market

The folders on materials for the chemical, nuclear and thermal power industries show that Böhler's range reaches far beyond structural steel, but those sets concern alloy and nickel steels, not robotics as such. In Poland the company relies on a network of welding-consumables distributors. For an integrator it matters that the manufacturer offers application support and gathers customer requirements for a given process. Buying wire is an operating cost of the cell, separate from the cost of the arm itself, and it is worth including in the calculation, as in “Poland's Robotization Tax Relief”.