A faster eye for robot welders

A vision system that can guide robotic welders along seams at up to 15m/min - twice as fast as was previously possible - has been developed by a British company. Oxfordshire-based Meta Vision Systems says that its single-board Laser Pilot MTR finding and tracking system can be integrated into the controller for most makes of robot, avoiding the need for a dedicated PC and vision cards.

The system, which has a positioning accuracy said to be better than 0.1mm, is suitable for arc and laser welding of all types of seam. After an installation has been programmed using software running on a PC or laptop, the settings are saved to the processing board which can then operate independently.