Gantry Multi-Point Spot Welding Machine for Galvanized Shelving Panel Stiffeners

A high-tech logistics equipment manufacturer in East China had a straightforward bottleneck: its core product, a 1200 x 1200 mm galvanized load-bearing shelving panel, needed several 200 mm wide stiffeners welded inside every panel at densely spaced points - and single-point spot welding could not keep up. PDKJ engineered a gantry multi-point spot welding machine with 13 welding heads, medium frequency inverter DC welding and adjustable head spacing. The machine has been delivered to the customer's plant and is running in stable mass production.

Application Overview

Customer Welding Requirements

Customer Background

The customer is a high-tech logistics equipment manufacturer in East China, developing and producing intelligent storage racking, automated warehouse structures and material handling steel structures. With dozens of structural patents for warehouse equipment and import-export qualification, its products serve factory warehousing, automated storage systems and logistics sorting installations.

Project Background

The core mass-production part is a 1200 x 1200 mm galvanized load-bearing panel. To raise load capacity and prevent deformation under long-term loading, each panel carries multiple 200 mm wide stiffeners welded inside it, with closely spaced weld points and a strong demand for single-side multi-point synchronized welding. The existing single-point equipment simply could not follow the output rhythm - welding had become the weakest link of the line.

Pain Points and Problems

Before designing anything, PDKJ engineers ran a detailed process analysis on the customer's product. Three problems stood out:

• Limited efficiency from the traditional process. A conventional single-head spot welder welds one point at a time. A panel with dozens of welds required repeated part moving and re-positioning between welds - manual loading plus split welding meant long cycle times.
• Galvanized sheet demands both strength and stability. Welding 1.2 mm galvanized sheet means the welds must be strong and repeatable while the process controls the disturbance that zinc causes - a demanding combination for the equipment's control capability.
• Fixed tooling made changeovers painful. The customer produces many panel and stiffener specifications with varying weld pitches. Fixed welding head positions meant a full tooling rebuild for each new product, over half an hour of changeover each time, poor equipment utilization and no flexible coverage of the product mix.

The Gantry Multi-Point Spot Welding Machine

PDKJ designed the machine as a gantry structure with multiple welding heads working in coordination, matched with standardized positioning tooling. The operator's flow is deliberately simple:

Place stiffeners -> Position and load the panel -> Positioning cylinders clamp -> Heads weld in sequence -> Index to the next weld position -> Unload the finished panel

Commissioning the gantry multi-point welding machine on the customer's shop floor.

1. 13 welding heads working together, output released. The machine carries 13 welding heads that press and weld at multiple points simultaneously, at 0.5 seconds per weld point. With standardized tooling - panel placement, stiffener location and unloading all standardized - a reference two-stiffener panel completes in about 25 seconds. At the same staffing level, capacity rises by more than three times.

2. Adjustable head spacing for fast changeover. The welding head group adjusts within a working range and each head's spacing can be fine-tuned, so different panel specifications are covered without rebuilding the whole fixture. Changeover time drops by 80%, and one machine covers the customer's mainstream panel range.

Three-dimensional design of the gantry structure and multi-head welding layout.

1. Simple operation that lowers the labor barrier. Each welding head group can be started and stopped individually, so weld points are selected as needed instead of welding empty positions. The touchscreen stores welding current, pressure and hold time per product and recalls them with one touch - an ordinary operator is productive after half a day of training, with no dependence on certified welders.

2. Medium frequency inverter DC welding matched to 1.2 mm galvanized sheet. PDKJ's self-developed medium frequency inverter DC welding system uses balanced three-phase input and millisecond-level heat control. It breaks through the zinc layer quickly with less spatter, leaves flat weld points with shallow indentation - sharply reducing post-weld grinding - and produces uniform nuggets that eliminate cold joints and weld detachment. The small heat-affected zone keeps the thin sheet from warping, so panel flatness and appearance consistency rise while rework falls.

How the Machine Solves the Customer's Pain Points

1. From one point at a time to thirteen synchronized heads.. Dense weld layouts no longer multiply the cycle time; the gantry carries the heads to the work instead of the operator carrying the work to the welder.

2. Galvanized sheet welded with controlled heat input.. Millisecond-level control handles the zinc layer deliberately, protecting nugget quality and panel appearance at the same time.

3. Changeover stops eating the shift.. Adjustable head spacing replaces full tooling rebuilds, cutting changeover time by 80% and letting one machine serve the whole product family.

4. Skill dependence drops.. Stored, recallable parameters and half-day operator training replace the search for scarce skilled welders.

Why Choose a Gantry Multi-Point Welding Machine?

When a part carries dozens of weld points, cycle time is decided by how many welds happen per machine motion - not by how fast a single weld is. A gantry multi-point machine moves many heads over a fixed workpiece with standardized tooling, which is the structure that dense-point, high-volume panels actually need.

Key Advantages

• 13 welding heads, 0.5 s per weld point, approx. 25 s per reference panel.
• More than 3x capacity at unchanged staffing levels.
• Adjustable, individually controllable head groups with 80% shorter changeover.
• Medium frequency inverter DC system tuned for 1.2 mm galvanized sheet.
• Parameter storage with one-touch recall; operators productive after half a day.

Potential Applications

The same structure suits dense-point welding on thin sheet assemblies: warehouse racking, shelf panels, HVAC ducts, enclosure stiffeners, fencing grids and similar galvanized or cold-rolled sheet products where many welds per part define the cost.

From Design to Production

After the machine arrived at the customer's plant, PDKJ engineers commissioned it on site - tuning welding current, hold time and cylinder pressure, then running test welds until weld strength, appearance and the single-panel cycle time all met the customer's standard before handover.

Galvanized shelving panels and stiffener material staged for production.

PDKJ continues to provide customized laser welding and resistance welding solutions based on different materials, workpiece structures, welding requirements, and production applications.

Related Products

• Medium Frequency Row Spot Welding Machine
• Platform Type Intermediate-Frequency Inverter Seamless Spot Welding Machine
• Double Head Spot Welding Machine
• DTB-80 Industrial Vertical Medium Frequency Inverter Spot Welder
• Automatic Nut Feeding Spot Welding Machine

Contact PDKJ

Welding dozens of points per part on thin sheet? Send us the panel drawing and weld layout - PDKJ will evaluate a gantry multi-point design for your product, with test welding before you commit.

WhatsApp: +86 136 1279 3248

Email: pdkj101@gd-pw.com

Website: https://www.spotlaserwelding.com/contactus.html

Address: 1-2F, Building 3, Qichen Industrial Park, No. 26 Luxi 1st Road, Liaobu Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China

Guangdong Pudian Automation Technology Co., Ltd (PDKJ) - 20 years in resistance spot welding machines, laser welding machines and automated welding equipment.