Automated welding control for projection welding in automotive manufacturing

Technology provider Arplas specialises in aesthetic resistance welding for the automotive industry. In car body construction, conventional spot welding often leaves visible marks on the outer skin of the panel, requiring time-consuming rework, laser welding or plastic covers. Arplas previously developed and assembled the welding control for its patented welding unit entirely in-house. To meet modern data logging requirements and new regulatory demands, the company now relies on a control platform that is available worldwide and established in the automotive industry.

Integration of welding control and quality control
Arplas combines its welding expertise with Bosch Rexroth technology and uses the PRC7000 welding control with integrated Arplas welding functionality as its preferred system. Through close technical cooperation and testing, Arplas’ proven QCS (Quality Control System) technology has been integrated into the control. There it assesses the quality of every single weld spot and appears on the user interface as the “Arplas” production process. The PRC7000 combines freely configurable hardware and adaptive controllers with an open system architecture and is supplied ready to install in a welding cabinet. It is operated and commissioned via the web-based “PRI-web” interface, while the IoT Connector provides all relevant process and quality data via OPC UA or MQTT to higher-level MES and cloud systems. In addition, the PRC7000 automatically provides the data logging features required by the automotive industry in accordance with various standards. “With Bosch Rexroth, we rely on a strong, flexible partner that continuously develops and, with the PRC7000, offers a particularly powerful control platform,” says Joost van Haperen, CEO of Arplas.

Material savings and reduced energy costs
The Arplas process, a special form of projection welding, delivers excellent surface quality with full structural strength thanks to its special projection geometry. The weld spots on the outer skin of the body remain virtually invisible, eliminating rework, laser welding or plastic covers. Narrower flanges save material, reduce weight and cut energy consumption by up to 75 percent compared with spot welding processes. The process is suitable for high-strength steel, mild steel, aluminium sheet, cast aluminium and magnesium, as well as for complex geometries and hard-to-reach areas. With the Bosch Rexroth platform, Arplas also benefits from long-term component availability and solutions prepared for new regulatory requirements such as the Cyber Resilience Act. For customers, this makes it easier to integrate the Arplas process into production lines.

Edited by Maria Brueva, Induportals editor – adapted by AI.

www.boschrexroth.com