Abstract
The use of welding robots in manufacturing companies has been increasing drastically since the second half of the 20th century in South Africa. Spot-welding robots are the most common welding robots that are used in the South African motor manufacturing industry today, while mobile welding robots have been introduced lately to manufacturing industries to reduce the number of manual welders and increase production.
The cost and time analysis in this research is done on locomotive sub-assemblies assembled and welded by manual and robotic methods. The data used in this minor dissertation research for manual welding was gathered from previous time studies done on the sub-assemblies, and the data for the mobile welding robot was collected by using a stopwatch. The comparison of the two pieces of information was based on the cost and time to complete each component. The results indicate a cost-saving when mobile welding robots are used for welding sub-assemblies rather than manual welding.