【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Processing Equipment】Fully Automated Intelligent Welding of Large Ball Valves from 2015 to 2023

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Looking at the development of chemical engineering technology over the past decade, we praise the prosperity and strength of modern China. This is just a starting point to encourage further discussion among everyone; with your participation, things will become even more interesting. [The Ten-Year Development of Chemical Engineering Equipment] – continuous updates and summaries are available; feel free to join the discussions at https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html. Prevention first, life above all. ----------------------------------------- Recently, good news came from the construction of the Jinyun pumped storage power station in Zhejiang: the ball valve body for Unit 6, which was welded using fully automated robotic systems provided by Harbin Electric Machinery Factory Co., Ltd. under Harbin Electric Group, passed inspection again with zero defects after annealing, thus achieving the goal of zero rework throughout the automated welding process. Harbin Electric Motors has made another significant breakthrough in the field of automated welding production for large structural components. It is understood that, compared to traditional manual welding, intelligent dual-robot workstations offer significant advantages. By utilizing the cutting-edge welding technique of narrow-gap transverse welding, the weld gaps required in this process are about 60% smaller than those in conventional welding methods, which reduces the amount of welding material needed. This in turn lowers production costs significantly, reduces the workload on operators, and further improves efficiency. Through continuous research on the welding process for ball valve prototypes, this workstation optimized the groove design for ball valves, identified welding process parameters suitable for widespread application, overcame challenges such as laser vision tracking, weld pool monitoring and recording, as well as weld bead layer optimization, and formulated process methods and operating procedures appropriate for the automated welding of ball valves. Ultimately, in the Jinyun project, with the welding operator handling the tasks independently and the process engineer providing ongoing supervision, an intelligent dual-robot workstation was successfully applied to achieve the automated welding of the first ball valve product. At present, this automated welding technology for ball valves is at the leading level in the industry.