Follow us on: Select language: English Swedish Dutch ABOUT US COMPETENCIES APPLICATIONS AFTERMARKET CONTACT US NEW JOBS NEWS Our Background Diagnosis Our background Andon Automation's background is unique in the global market and goes far beyond the time when Andon was established. Andon represents a robot welding technology that started within ESAB Group in 1974, when the first fully electrically controlled welding robot was delivered to a Swedish customer. The business operations developed within ESAB until January 1993, when the entire robotics business was acquired by ABB and integrated into their market offering. Within ESAB and ABB - both world-leading companies - the robot activities were divided into product and system operations. The system part was broken out from ABB in 2004 and Andon was founded, and continued with the same operations as within ESAB and ABB - The business goes on and on - ANDON. Important milestones for almost 40 years with welding robots are briefly described below. ESAB 1974 - 1992 In the early years, the market was characterized by resistance to the new technology, which was seen as a threat to manual labor. The understanding of competitiveness through robotic welding increased slowly and investments accelerated. In 1976, we created the two-station concept, where the robot and the operator work together to obtain a high degree of utilization. Today, this concept is a norm in the market. As early as 1978, the first station with hanging robots was built. Five mobile portals with ten welding robots were delivered to a manufacturer of heat exchanger mats in England. During the early 80's we developed programmable positioners followed by a joint tracking system where the arc is used as a sensor, and in 1984 the first flexible manufacturing system for low series production (picture above). During the second half of this decade, ESAB delivered systems with off-line programming and together with AGA we developed rapid welding for higher meltdown rates. A major breakthrough in production philosophy took place in 1992 when we delivered the first system for one-piece production. The plant was for welding subcomponents for elevators to an Austrian customer. The robot programs were generated automatically and the components were produced Just in Time, directly to customer orders. ABB 1993 - 2003 The benefits of robotic welding technology had a major impact on the market and thousands of welding robots were delivered every year. Many suppliers were now active and market conditions changed from the seller's to the buyer's market. ABB Robotics' acquisition of ESAB's robotic operations gave us a competitive advantage, which enabled the development of new concepts. In 1994, when the fourth generation of ABB robot controls was released, we delivered a multi-robot system for welding ship sections to a German shipyard. We have since delivered a large number of mobile portals. RobotStudio was developed, which is ABB's software for model-based simulation and off-line generated programming, which resulted in new industry segments being able to benefit from robotics. Our flexible welding systems were introduced to a number of customers in the construction and industrial vehicle segments, for the production of sub-components directly against assembly lines and customer orders. ANDON 2004 - From the first of January 2004, Andon is run under its own auspices following a management buyout of the system operations from ABB. Based on our background, we have extensive experience in flexible low-series production and robot systems adapted to meet each individual customer's needs. Our strong focus is on complete systems for robotic low-series production . Read more about low-series production LEGAL CONDITIONS PRIVACY POLICY Follow us on: