Robotic Welding & Automation Specialist

Ameritex Machine & Fabrication is seeking a Robotic Welding & Automation Specialist to take ownership of our robotic welding operations and help expand automation throughout our manufacturing facility.

This is not simply a robot operator or maintenance position. We are looking for someone who will actively identify opportunities for automation, pull appropriate work from our production schedule, program and implement jobs, develop fixtures and processes, troubleshoot equipment, and keep our robotic welding systems producing.

Our current robotic welding equipment includes an OTC/Daihen industrial welding robot and a Miller collaborative welding system (cobot). We intend to continue investing in robotic welding and automation as utilization and opportunities grow.

The successful candidate will become Ameritex’s internal champion for robotic welding and automation and will be responsible for demonstrating where these technologies can improve throughput, consistency, quality, and labor utilization.

• Own the day-to-day operation and utilization of Ameritex’s robotic welding equipment.
• Program, set up, operate, and troubleshoot OTC/Daihen robotic welding systems and Miller welding cobots.
• Develop and optimize weld programs, sequencing, travel speeds, torch angles, wire-feed settings, and welding parameters.
• Perform changeovers and bring new parts and assemblies onto robotic welding systems.
• Troubleshoot welding defects, programming issues, equipment faults, sensors, torch systems, wire-feed systems, and related automation.
• Maintain robots, welding equipment, tooling, and work areas to a high standard of reliability and cleanliness.
• Coordinate preventative maintenance and outside technical support when required.
• Help ensure robotic welding equipment is available, reliable, and production-ready.

A major responsibility of this position is proactively identifying opportunities for automation.

• Regularly review the production schedule, backlog, drawings, and upcoming jobs to identify components and assemblies suitable for robotic welding.
• Work directly with scheduling, production supervisors, engineering, and welding departments to move appropriate work onto the robots.
• Identify repetitive weldments, high-volume parts, product families, long-running jobs, and other automation opportunities.
• Maintain a pipeline of upcoming robotic welding work so machines do not sit idle simply because work has not been assigned to them.
• Evaluate whether existing manual welding processes can be redesigned or standardized to make them suitable for automation.
• Look beyond the current schedule for recurring products that should become permanent robotic welding candidates.

The expectation is that this person pulls work toward the robots rather than waiting for work to be pushed to them.

• Review fabrication drawings, weld symbols, models, and production requirements to determine robotic welding feasibility.
• Develop welding strategies for new components and assemblies.
• Work with engineering and production teams to improve part design, tolerances, fit-up, and repeatability for robotic welding.
• Develop or coordinate the development of fixtures, positioners, locating systems, and tooling needed to automate parts.
• Conduct trials and prove out new robotic welding processes before releasing them to production.
• Establish repeatable setups that reduce changeover time and operator dependency.
• Document successful programs, setups, fixtures, weld parameters, and procedures so work can be repeated consistently.
• Build families of programs and standardized processes that allow similar parts to be introduced quickly.

Ameritex intends…