{"id":1108,"date":"2023-02-06T15:15:10","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T20:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2026-03-26T08:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:03:48","slug":"smarter-spot-welding-automation-with-kineoworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/smarter-spot-welding-automation-with-kineoworks\/","title":{"rendered":"Smarter spot welding automation with KineoWorks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"has-cyan-color has-text-color wp-block-heading\">Demand for more efficient robotics manufacturing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While industrial robots are well-established in automated manufacturing processes like pick-and-place, spot welding and paint spraying, there is always fresh demand for accelerating production speed\/accuracy. And the need to reduce the economic cost and environmental impact of high energy consumption on the factory floor has never been more keenly felt&#8230; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KineoWorks software is enabling the evolution of smarter and more efficient manufacturing methods that increase speed\/accuracy and reduce energy consumption in robotics manufacture and quality control.  This article focusses on one example: optimizations in automated spot-welding.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-cyan-color has-text-color wp-block-heading\">Spot welding optimization with KineoWorks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Robotics-based spot welding is widely adopted across industries like automotive and aerospace to weld metal sheets together. Typically, a spot welding &#8220;gun&#8221; is mounted on an articulated robot arm. The gun consists of two rods (electrodes) that clamp the metal sheets together under pressure. Passing a large electrical current through them generates the high temperatures that <em>weld <\/em>them together at the <em>spot<\/em> between the electrodes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This video illustrates just two possible goals for optimizing industrial robots in spot welding applications using KineoWorks software. The robots are optimized in software simulations so they can be programmed to (i) increase speed and (ii) mitigate against risk of collisions during factory floor operation:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls src=\"https:\/\/videos.mentor-cdn.com\/mgc\/videos\/5400\/21e748f4-e023-4672-81f1-688e5805caa0-en-US-video.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Robot trajectory optimization: cycle time \/ productivity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The first part of the video illustrates overall welding time being reduced by 30% through optimizing robot trajectories between each welding position. KineoWorks does this by minimizing the number of &#8220;waypoints&#8221; through which the robot moves the weld gun to avoid collisions in its environment as it moves from weld-to-weld. You can see a more detailed example in the image below:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/02\/KineoWorks-optimizing-trajectory-by-reducing-robot-waypoints-1024x401.png\" alt=\"KineoWorks optimizing trajectory by reducing robot waypoints\" class=\"wp-image-1114\" width=\"768\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/02\/KineoWorks-optimizing-trajectory-by-reducing-robot-waypoints-1024x401.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/02\/KineoWorks-optimizing-trajectory-by-reducing-robot-waypoints-600x235.png 600w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/02\/KineoWorks-optimizing-trajectory-by-reducing-robot-waypoints-768x301.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/02\/KineoWorks-optimizing-trajectory-by-reducing-robot-waypoints-1536x602.png 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/02\/KineoWorks-optimizing-trajectory-by-reducing-robot-waypoints-2048x803.png 2048w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/02\/KineoWorks-optimizing-trajectory-by-reducing-robot-waypoints-900x353.png 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Reducing trajectory waypoints from 3 (left) to 2 (right) results in smoother and faster robot motion  <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Robot trajectory optimization: collision avoidance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The second part of the video shows how KineoWorks can be used to minimize the risk of the robot and its weld gun colliding with the operating environment during manufacture. KineoWorks does this by optimizing for clearance between the robot and the work-piece\/operating environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-cyan-color has-text-color wp-block-heading\">In conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>KineoWorks optimization tools benefit spot welding automation for improved manufacturing efficiency. The same technology offers these benefits &#8211; and more &#8211; to a wide range of robotics applications in manufacturing and 3D scanning. Check out our further resources below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Further resources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Webinar: <a href=\"https:\/\/webinars.sw.siemens.com\/en-US\/industrial-robot-optimization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Industrial robot optimization with Kineo software components<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Technical deep-dive: <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/kineoworks-step-by-step-working-with-trajectories\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">KineoWorks step-by-step: working with trajectories<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Demand for more efficient robotics manufacturing While industrial robots are well-established in automated manufacturing processes like pick-and-place, spot welding and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49853,"featured_media":1119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[2,4],"industry":[83],"product":[246],"coauthors":[409],"class_list":["post-1108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learning-resources","tag-kineo","tag-plm-components","industry-software-development","product-plm-open"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2023\/02\/robot-arm-with-spot-welding-tool-piece.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49853"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1108"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1128,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions\/1128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/plm-components\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}