The Will-Burt Co. is an international OEM serving many different industries
including defense, telecommunications, energy production and more. The
campus in Orville, Ohio has over 250,000 square feet of manufacturing and
assembly space. Part of the manufacturing activities done here is
fabrication of sheet metal used by heavy machinery companies such as
Caterpillar and JLG. Located in a rural area, the company was challenged
with finding skilled welders and the welder shortage was affecting the
company’s ability to take on additional work.
The company went from a manual welding process to an automated
robotic arc
welding system, integrated by Weldbot, using a FANUC M-710iC/12L
robot for
their large parts first in 2020 and added another automated system using a
FANUC ARC Mate 100iD/8L robot. Will-Burt found
that the robots were on
average 3 to 4 times more efficient than manual welding, plus yielded better
welding quality. For every robotic system added, it has allowed an extra 240
to 320 additional hours of welding per week or approximately $4 million of
contract fabrication work. The extra capacity and capabilities allow the
facility to control costs, keeping the company competitive while improving
the quality of the parts produced.
Future automation projects include automating their CNC machine tending as
well as adding another automated robotic welding solution.