As described in part 1 of this blog series, we invest time into understanding your products, your processes, your space, your team, and your end goals—and we do this in your shop whenever possible!

Take a look at our four-step approach, from design to installation, and learn how we collaborate with every customer to craft cobot welding fixtures that stand the test of time.

Kinetic’s 4-Step Approach to Welding Fixtures

Our team’s approach to designing and building your fixture can be broken down into four phases:

1. Discovery
2. Recommendations
3. Building and iterating
4. Installation

1. Discovery

We kick off the discovery phase with our 10 key questions. At this time, we’ll also obtain your parts files, weld specifications, drawings, work instructions, and any other documentation you maintain for your parts. After an observational visit to your factory (assuming that’s possible), we’ll combine and sort your information so we can draft your fixture’s requirements and make recommendations.

2. Simulations and recommendations

Once we understand your processes, we’ll use CAD software to design a fixture specifically for your part. Now, we can experiment with the best approach for pulling in and clamping your part. 

Next, we perform simulations that allow us to determine and improve the cycle time and ensure easy access to all the joins with the correct callouts. 

Finally, we adjust the design and run new simulations until we see the results you’ve requested.

3. Building and testing

In the third phase, we build the first physical prototype of your fixture and begin testing the real-world results against our simulations. We load the fixture with your part’s pieces as well as finished parts to confirm that they physically sit in the fixture the way our simulation anticipated. 

The first working prototype is rarely 100% accurate. So at this point, we’ll begin implementing small tweaks to the stop positions, experimenting with different machining angles, adding or removing clamps, and changing the clamping technology. These iterations allow us to optimize the fixture’s performance to fulfill your individual needs.

4. Installation

For the fourth and final phase, we pack and ship your fixture for installation. 

Some customers prefer to handle the installation in-house, but we’re happy to provide in-person installation services if you’d like our assistance. In most cases, customers with automation already in place are well-suited to perform the installation themselves. If you do ask us to install the fixture for you, however, we can install even an elaborate system within a day!

Your Parts, Your Fixtures, Your Future

Kinetic does one unconventional, extra-special thing for our custom fixturing customers: we give them the design files for their fixtures.

That’s right. If you contact Kinetic and we design a welding fixture for you, the design is yours.

Use the laser file to cut your own replacement parts. Use the design files to make a second welding fixture. Modify at will. Just go for it.

Welding fixtures that last

Our team has an inside joke that “fixtures are like cockroaches” because even the most slapped-together fixtures seem to survive decades, often outliving the very parts they were made to hold.  

Our goal is for both your fixture and your design to survive. With the files we hand over to you, 20 years from now, you’ll be able to reimagine and rebuild any aspect of the custom welding fixtures you commissioned from Kinetic Technologies.

Do you have an eye toward the future of automation in manufacturing? Are you ready to invest in a fully custom cobot welding fixture?

Let’s connect!

The post Welding Fixtures Done Right, Part 2: Our 4-Step Design-and-Build Method appeared first on Kinetic Technologies LLC.