For years, across this industry, our team has kept an eye on the ongoing welder shortage. We realized early on that relying entirely on manual welding for the foreseeable future was going to cost us long-term. Not necessarily in dollars, but in what kind of outputs we could realistically promise our customers.
You see, even industry-wide data shows that the welding workforce is aging fast. The American Welding Society projects a need for 330,000 new welding professionals by 2028—roughly 82,500 openings every year.
This means any shop that relies entirely on manual welding will hit a ceiling sooner than later. And the typical customer simply can’t afford to wait for a shop to figure it out.
That’s why we invested in a cobot, a collaborative robot welder designed specifically for job shops like ours. Read on to understand why we made that call, how the system works and what the benefits are for you when you send work our way.
Job shops aren’t high-volume production facilities. We don’t run the same part 10,000 times. It’s more common for us to weld 30 brackets, then 12 frames, then 50 enclosure panels, as an example.
And this specific kind of work creates a few challenges for welding.
Ultimately, manual welding depends entirely on the skill and stamina of the person behind the torch. A great welder produces great welds, but even the best welder gets tired over an hours-long run and inconsistency can creep in.
The skills needed to produce consistent welds by hand takes years to develop, and with the talent pool shrinking due to more welders retiring daily, it’s harder than ever to find and keep people who have these skills.
That said, traditional robotic welding doesn’t solve this either. Those systems are built for high-volume runs of identical parts. They need extensive programming, dedicated fixtures and significant changeover time between jobs.
If you run a wide mix of welding processes across constantly changing part types, the economics just don’t work.
All of this means that for a time, we kept coming back to the same question. How do we protect our skilled welders’ expertise and focus it where it matters most?
That’s what cobots are built to do.
Cobots are designed to work safely alongside people without cages. Operators teach them by guiding the torch through a weld path by hand, which means no programming background required.
What makes them work for job shops specifically comes down to a few things:
Research from MIT’s Interactive Robotics Group found that human-robot teams reduce human idle time by 85% compared to all-human teams. In a job shop, idle time means lost capacity.
Less idle time results in faster throughput, tighter schedules and more predictable delivery of the parts you’re waiting for.
We run a system powered by Hirebotics’ Beacon platform, a smartphone-based setup that puts programming and full control directly in our welders’ hands. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
A welder opens the Beacon app on a phone or tablet. They set parameters like wire feed speed, arc length, torch angles.
Then they guide the cobot arm through the weld path by hand and press “teach.” The robot learns the path and saves the job to its memory. Most parts can be programmed in under ten minutes.
In terms of throughput numbers, the system runs at weld speeds around 90 inches per minute and can deliver up to four times the output of a single manual welder per shift.
While one job is running, operators are already loading the next program for maximum efficiency.
The system handles carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum. It welds lots as small as 30 to 50 parts efficiently. Ultimately, operators can run dozens of different part types in a single shift with quick program recalls between jobs.
When complex geometry is part of the equation, the 7th axis comes into play. The torch can reach around obstacles and hold consistent angles that would be difficult to maintain manually. That’s a big deal for fit-up quality downstream.
This is also part of why our tube laser investment changed things downstream. Precision upstream means less correction later, and the cobot follows the same logic.
The practical upside for you as our customer comes down to a few things.
First, turnaround improves. Jobs that used to take weeks because of welder availability can move faster. When a project is a good fit for automation, we can get it into the queue and running quickly.
Quality is more consistent too. Every part in a cobot run matches the very first one. If you’ve ever dealt with a batch where the last 20 parts were clearly made at the end of a long shift, you know exactly why this matters.
And we can take on small-batch jobs that a traditional robotic welding setup would never touch. Runs of 30 to 50 parts are no problem. You don’t have to hit a minimum quantity to get the consistency that robotic welding delivers.
Our welding capabilities span a wide range of materials and processes. Adding the cobot means more of your work qualifies, without changing how we work together.
We made this investment because the industry data has made it clear that 100% manual welding isn’t sustainable. Welders are retiring. New ones aren’t replacing them fast enough.
And our customers still have projects that need to get done on time and on budget, every single day.
We’re among the first job shops in our region to offer robotic welding for small-lot production.
Want to see it in action or learn more? Request a quote or contact us today to schedule a tour and learn more about how our cobot welder can enhance your production workflow.
A cobot welder is a collaborative robotic welding system designed to work safely alongside human operators without safety caging. Unlike traditional industrial welding robots, cobots are lightweight, easily programmed and built for high-mix, low-volume production.
Operators teach new weld paths by guiding the arm by hand and setting parameters through a smartphone app. No robotics background is required. The system then repeats those welds with consistent speed, torch angle and heat input every time.
Traditional robotic welding systems are built for high-volume runs of identical parts. They require significant programming, dedicated fixtures and long changeover times between jobs. Cobots are built instead for flexibility. Here’s some key differences:
Yes. Cobot welding is cost-effective for small production runs, and that’s one of the main reasons we invested in the system. Traditional robotic welding cells are built for high-volume, identical-part production, so the economics only work at scale.
Cobots flip that. Fast programming and minimal changeover time mean batches of 30 to 50 parts run just as efficiently as larger ones. You get the consistency and speed of robotic welding without needing to hit a minimum quantity to justify it.
Cobot welding is significantly more consistent than manual welding across a production run. A cobot holds the same torch angle, travel speed and heat input on the last part as it does on the first.
Manual welding is highly skilled work, but even experienced welders see fatigue-related variation over long runs. For production where quality needs to be predictable across every part in a batch, cobot welding has a clear advantage.
Most cobot welding systems, including AMF’s, handle the most common structural and fabrication metals:
The right filler material and weld parameters vary by metal type, and the system is configured for each accordingly. If you’re not sure whether your material is a good fit, reach out and our team can review your specs before you commit to a project.
Parts with repeatable weld paths and batch sizes of 30 or more tend to be the best fit. Good candidates include:
Parts requiring significant judgment calls, unusual fixturing or very small run quantities under 10 may be better suited to manual welding. A quick conversation with our team will help determine the right process for your project.
Rich Marker is an 18 year, skilled professional in metal fabrication and manufacturing. Co-founder, owner and principal of All Metals Fabrication, Rich has helped to sustain the company’s success over a variety of economic conditions. He has extensive background in continuous improvement, training and process improvement, and emotional intelligence—among other specialized proficiencies. He loves to learn, fly fish, watch college football and devour NY style pizza! He has the best family on earth, loves a good plan, great teaching and the opportunity to get better.
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