As a contract manufacturer for international companies in various sectors, Bieber Industrie uses welding technology from Cloos. In addition to manual welding equipment, Bieber uses three robot systems from the specialists in Haiger. Bieber commissioned the third robot system for welding grate troughs for waste incineration systems just in time for the company's 100th anniversary in 2019. Both Bieber and Cloos were founded in 1919 and can therefore each look back on more than 100 years of company history.

In the early years, Bieber initially manufactured equipment for the agricultural sector and quickly developed into an industrial subcontractor for the production of individual parts for large series after the Second World War. From the mid-1990s, the company once again invested heavily in machinery in order to expand its product range. Today, more than 100 employees manufacture various products for sectors such as environmental technology, the energy industry, the rail industry, metal and mechanical engineering, the food industry and agriculture. "Thanks to our strong diversification, we are independent of individual markets," says Managing Director Raymond Bieber, who is now the fourth generation to run the family business together with his great cousin Marc Bieber.

Welding as a core competence

Whether laser cutting, edging, bending, electrical or mechanical assembly - Bieber offers the entire range of sheet metal processing. At the heart of this is the welding area. Bieber has been using welding technology from Cloos for more than 20 years. A total of 40 employees work in welding production. In the manual welding area, Bieber uses more than 20 welding power sources from Cloos. The first robot system for welding small parts was added in 2015. Another robot system followed in 2017 for welding medium-sized components.

The latest system from 2019 now welds the complete grate trough for waste incineration systems. Here, the Qirox QRC-350 is mounted overhead on a vertical track with vertical and horizontal lift. This considerably extends the robot's working area, allowing it to move flexibly in all directions. The workpiece positioner brings the components into an optimum position for welding. It has a horizontal swivel axis on which an L-shaped arm is mounted. A vertical rotary axis with a faceplate is integrated into the arm and is used to hold the workpiece.

The robot has a torch changing system. This enables the flexible use of different welding processes - depending on the application. The system is also equipped with an arc sensor to compensate for any component tolerances. This sensor not only uses the arc for welding, but also for measuring the workpiece joint position. If the measurement results are unequal on both sides, the position of the joint deviates from the programmed path. The computer-based robot controller then corrects the position of the welding head so that the seam is positioned exactly in the middle of the joint. As measuring and welding take place simultaneously with the arc sensor, there is hardly any loss of time.

The intelligent Duo-Drive wire drive system transports the welding wire safely and reliably without restricting the robot's freedom of movement. The slim and compact design of the wire drive guarantees good accessibility even in confined areas.