Caldera increases productivity by more than 70 percent

Since the last year, the Caldera Heating Group, with registered office in Bursa, Turkey, has been operating two robot systems from Carl Cloos Schweisstechnik GmbH in Haiger. The automated machines weld many different varieties of boilers. By introducing automated welding, Caldera was able to increase the productivity and the quality of manufacturing considerably.

Since its foundation in 2004, the Caldera Heating Group has developed from a distributor of heaters into an important manufacturer of boilers in steel and cast iron, wood gasification plants and pellet boilers. Today, Caldera exports products related to heating to more than 26 countries, with the sales focus being on Europe. With around 170 staff, Caldera annually produces about 15,000 boilers from steel. These are used both domestically and commercially. “We would like to produce 30,000 boilers a year by 2020“, says Caldera’s Head of Production, Mesut Boztepe.

Automation increases productivity and quality

Since the end of 2014, most of the steel boilers have been welded on two automated robot machines. These boilers vary between a capacity of 15,000 kcal up to 300,000 kcal with a plate thickness of 4 to 10 mm. Both machines each have two stations and are fitted with a six-axis QRH 360 robot. One machine has two WP-TS 5kn workpiece positioners and two WP-TS 10kn workpiece positioners are used on the other machine. They have a horizontal swivelling axis on which an L-shaped extension arm is fitted. A vertical rotation axis with a horizontal face plate is integrated into the extension arm. This serves for holding the workpiece. The positioning devices can pick up components weighing from up to 500 kg or 1t and always bring them into the perfect position for welding.