A Study on Car Body Mold Laser Heat Treatment Process Design Using an Articulated Robot

In the case of car body molds, special heat treatment technology is mainly used to improve wear resistance and impact resistance by heating, cooling, or adding special elements to specific parts where deformation such as shearing or bending of the metal plate occurs. Recently, attempts have been made to automate the mold heat treatment process using laser heat treatment devices and robots with stable functions. However, since car body molds have many complex shapes and are large in size, the working range of 6-axis robots equipped with laser heat treatment devices is limited and the efficiency is low. In this study, efficient process design was studied for laser heat treatment of car body molds by applying an articulated robot, and the design specifications of additional axis robot and heat treatment work efficiency were compared through dynamic analysis and robot simulation analysis. As a result, we concluded that additionally applying a two-axis robot is an efficient and practical heat treatment robot for laser heat treatment work on large carbody molds such as side outer mold.