Is this for-hire welding robot an omen for skilled labor?

There's a new, easy-to-program welding robot launching in November, and for many in the industry it comes not a moment too soon. That's because there are massive labor shortages in the American welding sector.

The robot, called the BotX Welder, is a direct response to industry hiring problems, along with the persistent challenge faced by fabrication companies in producing precision parts in small batches. It's also a feat of engineering and a good example of how automation companies are now standing on the shoulders of a generation of developers who created the underlying technology that's now being deployed to address specific industrial challenges.

"Many people didn't believe that collaborative robots could perform such heavy-duty tasks as welding," says Rob Goldiez, co-founder of Hirebotics. "We realized the need of a solution for small and medium sized metal fabricators trying to find welders."

Re: Massive labor shortages?

Remedy:

Higher Wages.

Better Benefits.

Improve Working Conditions.

Presto - highly skilled welders are knocking on your door.

It’s almost like magic!

Re: What does this company have that is new?

They come to your shop/factory and set up a robot that can be easily programmed to do repetitive work and can be run by an operator with no welding skills.

When the job is done, they bill you for hours worked, and they take their robot back to the robot store.

If you pay them, they will come. Blaming everything on lack of applicants is BS. There are always people willing to work if you are willing to pay.

The probably is that the customer may not be willing to pay. Let's of American bitch about cheap foreign made goods, then flood Wal-Mart to buy the items they complain about.

Depends on what he’s welding...

If it’s the pressure hull of a nukie boat going deep or steam pipes in a power plant being welded up he’s worth a whole lot more than some honyock fresh off the street building a gate...One weldment type can only be completed by the most skilled and experienced welder...The other, not so much...Yet, both can be referred to as “welders”...

It’s about zero versus tolerable defects, as you no doubt well know...Some welds must be 100% perfect, no exceptions, where others “good enough” will suffice...

Almost 40 years experience as a welder/fitter...

“Welding junk iron in high school can in no way be compared to what a pipe welder or exotic metal welder does.”

Like I just posted on another thread, I work in a shipyard. You want a real welding challenge? Try welding brand new steel to old, rusted steel. No one straight out of welding school can do that.

As relates tp the lack of welders today) my dad was an expert welder who worked at Bethlehem Steel for 35 years, and then (as they were going under) he worked at Portsmouth Naval shipyard for a few years till his arthritis go too bad. Said he wanted to retire gracefully before he had too.

He and his friends built their own trailer home before WW2 (which he later served in as a welder) and lived out of it while they went to welding school. After getting married, he cam,e down from NH to East Boston MA to apply for a job, and rented a room and bought a dozen donuts and a quart of chocolate milk to live off for 3 days, ss he would have to return then. They hired him on the 3rd day.

That job meant often working in very bad weather, and sometimes welding around corners and using mirrors, and since he was only 5' 2'', he was a good fit for working on subs and in tight places. And sometimes when work demands were slow he worked a second and even third job in order to pay the bills for a family of 5 kids and the wife. They called him "honest Stan." Thank God for such a God-fearing man. He died at 79 from pancreatic cancer (no smoker or drinker).

He taught my youngest brother to weld, and they worked together for many years, and he semi-retired at 62.

So why is there a shortage of welders today? I think it is the same reason there is a shortage of truck drivers and other blue-collar jobs. The younger generations overall tend to not want to do that kind of work, nor have to, and lack the commitment that their predecessors had, and thus immigrants tend to be the ones doing such work (and ther cultures are not equal), if all all.

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