Welding robot: next step in JOOP’s growth strategy!

Joop van Zanten has recently rebranded as JOOP, “Born from the idea of giving our company a personal face.” On social media, the supplier regularly shares updates, with JOOP’s Industry 4.0 journey being the common thread in most posts. This speaks volumes about the company’s ambitions since 2018 to fully focus on the OEM market as a total steel supplier. “Assembly and welding are essentially the final steps in this. With welding certifications ISO 3834-2 and NEN EN 1090 EXC3, we were already well on our way with manual welding. But customers increasingly demand that we guarantee consistent welding quality. Hence, welding robot quality!”

Long-term customer relationships

The decision to fully focus on the OEM market in mid-2018 was driven by a weakening project market, which the company previously targeted with their ‘steel service.’ “By taking over the production of complete steel components from OEMs, you can fully align yourself with the customer’s procedures as a supplier. If you do this well, you can expect a steady stream of repeat orders. Here, we have bins filled with cut parts and semi-finished products in the order of production at the customer, which are delivered to the correct location at the customer’s site on demand. We have optimised and automated this to the point where incoming inspection by the customer is no longer necessary,” explains Johnathan Jacobus, who, as purchasing and project team leader, often sits at the table with customers.

Exclusively steel

What sets JOOP apart is that they exclusively process steel, but in plate thicknesses ranging from 2 to 300 mm and lengths up to 16 m. The enormous cutting capacity the company has long possessed still forms the basis for the rest of the production. To process both small and large parts, the production hall houses not only several ‘smaller’ machines but also an 8 m, 1250-ton LVD press brake. The welding department is the final link in the process, with JOOP also having a 5-axis DMU and several 3-axis milling machines, as well as a 12 m, 5-axis Zayer bed milling machine to post-process fully assembled products. This can result in significant time savings in the customer’s assembly process.

Consistent welding quality and delivery reliability for repeat orders

“The use of a welding robot is the latest process additions in our growth strategy, alongside continued investment in automation and knowledge. ‘Steel service’ thus makes way for ‘Industry 4.0.’ Since 2018, the focus has been on automation and robotization, forecasting, work preparation, and production,” summarizes Elbert van Zanten. “With our self-developed software, we recognise the operations from the customer’s STEP files and have real-time production insight via the dashboard. We have the same insight with Valk Welding’s ‘Management Information System MIS 2.0.’ With the standard ability to permanently record all data for each welded product, including all welding parameters!”

ARC-EYE adds significant value

“We have been specialising in the production of mast and tube parts for crane construction for years. The ARC-EYE seam tracking system adds significant value to this. While the customer demands very high tolerances on mast parts made from, for example, S700MC high-strength steel, we can speed up our edge process and compensate for any tolerances in the welding process using ARC-EYE.

“The welding robot on TRACK-FRAME-E3100 is just the beginning for us,” continues Elbert van Zanten. “We are now considering what the use of welding robots and ARP Automatic Robot Programming can mean for us. Importing STEP files directly into ARP and fine-tuning them ourselves is exactly how we want to work instead of hiring more employees.”

www.joopvanzanten.nl