The extension of the welding process with the on-the-fly technology (OTF) permits the movement of the scan system or the component during the welding process. The galvanometer mirrors compensate for the motion by advanced position calculation of the process points to be welded in the controller. The laser beam can consequently be deflected fast and precise to the correct position.
The high performance SCU and SCB scanner controllers by Blackbird permit the synchronization of the motion sequences between scan system and handling device and they guarantee maximum throughput. An optimization of the path and cycle times can be performed in the RSU User Software to get a process as optimal as possible. Key values, such as the angle of incidence, can in this connection be calculated during the welding process and can subsequently be adapted to the required tolerances.
The Blackbird controller can perform the OTF welding in combination with robots (e.g. KUKA, ABB or Yaskawa) or with one or two linear axes.
The process is additionally expanded with the RTX technology package in case of the linear axes. This provides the opportunity to integrate a real time position transmission through encoder signals into the process. The system has therefore information at any time about the current position and can check it through a target-actual comparison for correctness. The RTX technology is mainly used in planar welding processes, e.g. in electro-mobility applications.
A minimum total duration of non-productive downtimes and therefore maximum economics of the system are guaranteed by using the on-the-fly welding.