Endless Rotation of T-Axis in a Welding Application

The ENDLESS FUNCTION, as described in manual 178656-1 was found to be functional for a welding simulation of hard facing MIG welding of pipe.

This endless rotation function can be used for both external axes and T-axis of a robot manipulator to allow for greater continuous rotation of these motors, beyond 360 degrees. 

A typical example was mocked-up in simulation to demonstrate 10 full rotation of the T-axis while the robot applied hard facing to the inside of a pipe.  Here, every 360 degrees of rotation saw the pulse count position of the T-axis reset to zero.  This resetting can be accomplished in two ways:  manually or automatically.

For manual zeroing of the zero position of the T-axis, you set ENDLESS FUNCTION = STANDARD.  Then you deploy the MRESET instruction in the job (note:  execution of this instruction takes several seconds ... increasing cycle time).

For automatic zeroing, set ENDLESS FUNCTION = AUTO RESET.  No MRESET instruction is required then.