Fronius is supporting industrial and commercial enterprises at its prototyping centre in Wels, Austria, to develop individual solutions for challenging welding tasks. Whether the focus is on feasibility studies, welding prototypes, pre-production series or contract manufacturing for small series, the customer benefits from the Fronius experts’ comprehensive welding knowledge and their deadline pressure and investment risk are reduced.
Companies that want to take advantage of new trends or tap into fresh market segments are forced to leave their comfort zone because they need innovative materials and components, and set new challenges for themselves in production. A big issue here is the development and construction of prototypes. This can involve large investments, including in systems, software and staff, which come with a certain level of uncertainty. To reduce risks and costs, Fronius provides companies with the option to permanently outsource the welding-relevant parts of their prototype construction. In the Fronius prototyping centre, which covers a total area of more than 900 square metres, specialists from Fronius develop customised solutions to tackle every welding challenge.
“Since we put the Fronius prototyping centre into operation in early 2021, we have developed solutions to meet a wide range of requirements for customers from various sectors,” emphasises Wolfgang Scherleitner, head of the prototyping centre. “However, we don’t just offer technical support. Instead, we have expanded our range of services to include a number of high-tech analyses and simulations. This enables us to guarantee high quality as well as seamless welding data documentation.”
To make this possible, the prototyping centre offers a range of services including 3D equipment fabrication, 3D measurement and an offline programming option complete with welding process simulation. But not only that, heat and distortion simulation, welding seam inspection, a laser seam-tracking camera, hot active plasma technology for surface cleaning and a laboratory for metallographic examination all come as standard too. With the pioneering WeldCube software – for documenting and analysing welding data – Fronius makes it possible to trace the entire component history in detail. What is more, the welding technology specialists attach great importance to economical, resource-conserving and efficient production right from the outset.
The Fronius prototyping centre offers considerable added value particularly when it comes to strict quality requirements and more efficient production methods. Large dimensions, complex designs, tight deadlines and brand-new products – which call for particularly intelligent welding concepts – are all covered here and considered a matter of course. The welding experts are also available to support the transition from manual to robotic welding as well as the application of new materials or welding processes.
Customers from a wide range of sectors, including the automotive and component supply industries, aerospace technology, the agricultural and construction machinery industries and commercial transport, have already taken advantage of these services. Be it battery trays for e-mobility, axles, frame sections or various applications for other industrial sectors, parts of up to 1,500 kg and 3 x 2 metres can all be joined in the prototyping centre – and all with one technology that sets standards around the world for simulation, process monitoring and quality control.
