In the summer of 2023, I worked as a Manufacturing Engineer Intern at Exmark Manufacturing, a division of The Toro Company, in Beatrice, Nebraska. I got the opportunity to work in the Center of Innovation (COI) where we designed, built, and programmed 9-axis robotic welding cells to be shipped to other divisions of The Toro Company. My main responsibility was to wire up a robotic welding cell which involved running wires from a PLC to a Universal Robot, servo control modules, buttons on a remote control box, and other related modules. Even though I was following a wiring diagram, some troubleshooting was involved when wires would get hot for an unknown reason or when a manufacturer-provided template was useless so I had to create my own.
I did all of the assembly and wiring for this control cabinet along with a control box and remote PLC due to lack of space. There was 480V 3-phase power coming into the cabinet which powered the welder. A transformer and a switching power supply were used to provide 120V single-phase and 24V DC respectively to downstream components.
This welding cell consists of a 6-axis Universal Robot ur10e on 3-axis vention range extender with a Miller welder. The clamping table(left) is rotated by a servo in the black box so the welder can reach every part of the lawn mower frame.
The electrical cabinet started as an empty cabinet. I cut holes in the top and door for an air conditioner, to keep components cool, and an HMI. I attached all the components to the panel along with the wire raceway. The panel was wired up as much as it could be until the cabinet was installed in its final location. I then ran and terminated the remaining wires overhead and underground. I lost count of the amount of individual wires but it has to be over a hundred.