Metso Outotec’s filtration technology centre in Lappeenranta gets a boost from a laser welding robot supplied by Yaskawa Finland

Yaskawa is one of the largest manufacturers of industrial robots in the world. The new custom-built laser welding unit delivered to Metso Outotec, which is valued at approximately EUR 1 million, is a natural part of the centre’s long-term development. The City of Lappeenranta welcomes the investment in sustainable technology.

Metso Outotec’s Lappeenranta unit has a long legacy of supplying filtration technology to heavy industry.

– Metso Outotec’s filters are used in demanding conditions in, for example, mining and the chemical and food processing industries, says Jussi Venäläinen, Vice President of Metso Outotec’s Filtration Business Line.

– The filters used to separate liquids and solids need to be extremely hardwearing and their energy, emission and water efficiency requirements are in a league of their own.

This means that the systems used to make them also need to be state-of-the-art.

– Instead of just trusting the supplier’s test results, we also ran numerous tests of our own at LUT University before making the decision to invest in this new laser welding technology, Venäläinen says.

– The new laser welding unit is expected not only to increase manufacturing capacity and efficiency but also to improve safety and environmental friendliness.

Collaboration in the design of the laser welding unit

Yaskawa Finland installed, commissioned and tested the system before handing it over. The contract also included the configuration of a number of welding programs for the products that the system would produce as well as training for the client’s operators and programmers.

A large number of experts contributed to the design and delivery of the laser welding unit.

– The Motoman MC2000 robot, which is especially well suited to high-precision laser cutting and welding, was built in our factory in Japan.

– The 30-metre track along which the robot moves and the two workpiece positioners came from our factory in Sweden. Delivering the system was ultimately the responsibility of Yaskawa Finland Oy, explains Yaskawa Finland’s Managing Director Nina Lehtinen.

The fibre laser (an 8-kW Trumpf) was supplied by Yaskawa Finland’s Finnish partner Apricon, which represents German Trumpf laser technology in Finland.

– A key component of the system is an enclosure the size of a large room (12 metres wide, 6 metres deep and 4 metres tall) that we designed, Lehtinen adds.

Several of the accessories included in the system also came from our Finnish subcontractors.

Lappeenranta invests in green development

The City of Lappeenranta has chosen sustainable development as one of its strategic priorities and established a regional ecosystem of energy and environmental technology companies called the Greenreality Network.

– This is exactly the kind of investment that we need here, says the coordinator of the network, the City of Lappeenranta’s Development Manager Markku Mäki-Hokkonen.

– Metso Outotec’s new robot is an excellent tangible example of our region’s sustainable development and journey towards a greener future.

Metso Outotec is a frontrunner in sustainable technologies, end-to-end solutions and services for the aggregates, minerals processing and metals refining industries globally. By improving our customers’ energy and water efficiency, increasing their productivity and reducing environmental risks with our product and process expertise, we are the partner for positive change.

Metso Outotec is committed to limiting global warming to 1.5 °C with Science Based Targets. We ranked eighth on the 2021 Global 100 list of the world’s most sustainable companies.

Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Metso Outotec employs over 15,000 people in more than 50 countries and its sales for 2020 were approximately EUR 3.9 billion. The company is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki. mogroup.com, twitter.com/metsooutotec

Yaskawa Group is a Japan-based listed company and supplier of, among other things, industrial robotics. The company’s European robotics division is headquartered in Germany and has a robotics factory in Slovenia and plants producing control systems and accessories in Sweden and Slovenia.

Yaskawa Finland was established in 1983, and its mission since the beginning has been to serve Finnish industry with solutions based on automation and robotics.

At the core of the business are custom-built robotic systems for applications such as welding, machining and material handling. The Finnish company has supplied more than 2,000 robots, approximately half of which were built for welding. The company has customers of all sizes from small businesses to listed companies like Metso Outotec and in all industrial sectors from mechanical engineering to food processing.