Welding robot by Joel Sullivan - video

[nova_robotics]

Hey everyone, I'm Joel and I built this as well as a few other industrial robots. Thanks for your kind words. I'll give a few more details with respect to the project. The robot crawls into big hot presses and fills in dents and dings. The presses operate at 220C (428F) and the temperature poses an issue.

I've tried many types of high temperature polymer wheels and they've all been really bad. The friction is horrible. The robot slid around like it was on ice. Aluminum directly on the press surface actually bites in really well and has good grip, and the aluminum can certainly tolerate the heat. The knurling and the convex idea are both great, and I may try one or the other the next time I have the wheels off.

The actuators have dust seals that seem to do a good job of keeping spatter out. A light coat of Lincoln anti spatter compound seems to do the trick. Also the actuators were chosen because they're essentially a consumable and easily replaceable with off the shelf replacements. They're going to die, just prolong them as much as possible and swap out when needed.

I'm making lots of changes, including adding some shipping/parking brackets for the arms, and air jets to blow away dust. There are also lots of changes to the programming that need to happen.

Here's a video of the robot inside a press making a repair.