The new for-hire BotX Welder—developed by Hirebotics and utilizing Universal Robots’ UR10e collaborative robot arm—lets manufacturers automate arc welding with no capital investment, handling even small batch runs not feasible for traditional automation.

Nowhere in manufacturing is the shortage of labor felt as urgently as in the welding sector, which is now facing an acute shortage of welders nationwide. The industry's hiring challenge, combined with the struggle metal fabrication companies experience in producing quality parts quickly and in small runs, prompted Hirebotics to develop the BotX Welder. "Many people didn't believe that collaborative robots could perform such heavy-duty tasks as welding," says Rob Goldiez, co-founder of Hirebotics. "We realized the need of a solution for small and medium sized metal fabricators trying to find welders." Hirebotics' hire-a-robot business model built on the Universal Robot, set the foundation for the BotX. It is a welding solution powered by the UR10e cobot that is easy to teach, producing automation quality with small batch part runs.

"Therefore, we would No Bid contracts on a regular basis. With the BotX solution, we now quote that work and have been awarded contracts, so it has really helped grow our business"

The BotX is now available to early access customers and will officially launch at FABTECH in Chicago, November 11-14.

In developing BotX, Hirebotics addressed two major hurdles of robotic welding: the ease of programming and the ease in which a customer can obtain the system without assuming the risk of ownership. There are no installation costs with BotX and with cloud monitoring, manufacturers pay only for the hours the system actually welds. "You can hire and fire BotX as your business needs dictate," explains Goldiez.

The complete product offering comes with the UR10e cobot arm, cloud connector, welder, wire feeder, MIG welding gun, weld table, and configurable user-input touch buttons. The customer simply provides wire, gas, and parts. Customers can teach BotX the required welds simply via an intuitive app on any smartphone or tablet utilizing welding libraries created in world-class welding labs. A cloud connection enables 24/7 support by Hirebotics.

"We chose Universal Robots' e-Series line for several reasons," says Goldiez. "With Universal Robots' open architecture, we were able to control, not only wire feed speed and voltage, but torch angle as well, which ensures a quality weld every time," he says. "UR's open platform also enabled us to develop a cloud-based software solution that allows us to ensure a customer is always running with the latest features at no charge," explains the Hirebotics co-founder. "We can respond to a customer's request for additional features within weeks and push those features out to the customer with no onsite visits," says Goldiez, emphasizing the collaborative safety features of the UR cobots. "The fact that they're collaborative and don't require safety fencing like traditional industrial robots means a smaller foot print for the equivalent working space, or put another way; less floor space to produce same size part. In many cases less than half the floor space of traditional automation," he says. "The collaborative nature of the solution enables an operator to move between multiple cells without interrupting production, greatly increasing the productivity of an employee."

PMI LLC in Wisconsin, was one of the first customers of the BotX. "A large order would mean, we need to hire 10-15 welders to fulfill it - and they're just not out there," says VP of Operations at PMI, Erik Larson. "Therefore, we would No Bid contracts on a regular basis. With the BotX solution, we now quote that work and have been awarded contracts, so it has really helped grow our business," says Larson. "The BotX Welder doesn't require expensive, dedicated fixturing and robot experts on the scene." Now PMI's existing operators can handle the day-to-day control of the BotX, which welds a variety of smaller product runs. The Wisconsin job shop has now stored weld programs for more than 50 different parts in their BotX app. "We are now able to deliver quality equivalent to what we could accomplish manufacturing with very expensive tooling typically used with higher-volume part runs," says PMI's VP of Operations, mentioning the ease of accessing the solution. "Being able to simply hire the BotX Welder, and quickly switch between welds by using our smart phone—and only pay for the hours it works—is huge for us. It took our area lead, who had no prior robotics experience, half an hour to teach it how to weld the first part."

Another significant benefit was PMI's ability to get the BotX welds certified for customers who require this. "This now means we do not need to use certified welders to oversee the operation. As long as the cobot welder's program is certified, any operator can tend the cobot welder. This really unlocks a lot of resources for us," says Larson. "Hirebotics and Universal Robots really hit the mark with this, we're looking forward to a long partnership with them."

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About Universal Robots
Universal Robots was founded in 2005 to make robot technology accessible to all by developing small, user-friendly, reasonably priced, flexible industrial robots that are safe to work with. Since the first collaborative robot (cobot) was launched in 2008, the company has experienced considerable growth with the user-friendly cobot now sold worldwide. The company, which is a part of Teradyne Inc., is headquartered in Odense, Denmark, and has subsidiaries and regional offices in the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey, China, India, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico. In 2018, Universal Robots had a revenue of USD 234 million. For more information, please visit www.universal-robots.com or read our blog at blog.universal-robots.com

About Hirebotics
Hirebotics pioneered robots-as-a-service with its pay-by-the-productive-hour business model. Founded in 2015, the company's business model and software technology make automation accessible to businesses of all sizes with its no-capital approach to robotics, continuous monitoring, and instantly available 24/7 support. Hirebotics' cloud platform and mobile app unlock unique capabilities, deliver application-specific skills to its robots, and enable revolutionary experiences for everyday end users. Hirebotics is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and supports robots at manufacturers across the United States. For more information, please visit www.hirebotics.com