South African solar-heating company SunTank has invested significantly in robot-assisted production to increase its product volume, improve quality, save costs and stay competitive on a global scale.

SunTank MD Yoram Gur-Arie tells Engineering News that the implementation of a fully automated robotic welding system, designed to weld the entire range of solar tanks with minimal human intervention, will guide the company towards process manufacturing on a much larger scale.

The benefits of the system include more volume production, improved quality and precisions of welded areas, as well as increased production turnover and productivity.

“This system enables us to stay ahead of global competition, as the improved and increased quality and quantity set us apart from any other local manufacturer. Globally, the manufacturing of solar products is in the relatively early stages of development.

“Therefore, borrowing innovative and successful mechanisms from other industries, and adapting and applying them to our own, can only differentiate the progressive leaders in the industry,” Gur-Arie notes.

He adds that while the implementation of the robotic welding system had taken many months of planning and calibration, the exact process would not be replicated; however, other robotic processes will be implemented in various other stages of the manufacturing of solar geysers.

Meanwhile, he notes that the solar heating industry is undergoing a consolidation phase and he expects that it will stabilise in the short to medium term and provide customers with more clarity concerning technology, pricing and other standards and conventions that are in a state of flux.

“The structures of the South African and global industries are unique and make heavy investment in capital equipment a risky matter. We had to pace the process of introducing robots and other automation carefully to ensure that we do not land up with too much spare capacity when the industry is going through a down cycle,” Gur-Arie says.