RESOURCES / GLOSSARY
Glossary
The Language of the Cell
41 terms across welding, robotics and shipbuilding.
- Arc sensing
- Seam tracking that uses changes in welding current or voltage during weaving to keep the torch centered on the joint.
- ARC-R
- Catfish Vanguard's flexible production cell built around one W7 robot with coordinated external motion.
- ARC-R Dual
- Two W7 robots in one production system, operating independently or as one coordinated system.
- ARC-X
- Catfish Vanguard's large-structure robotic system: multiple W7 robots with gantry, linear, vertical and positioning axes, 20+ coordinated system axes.
- AWS D1.1
- The American Welding Society Structural Welding Code: Steel, widely used for structural steel welding procedures and qualification.
- Catfish OS
- Catfish Vanguard's software and manufacturing intelligence layer.
- Cobot vs industrial robot
- A collaborative robot is designed for applications where people may share the workspace under a risk assessment; an industrial robot is typically safeguarded from people. Safety depends on the application, not the robot alone.
- Collision checking
- Simulation of robot and cell motion to confirm no part of the system will strike the workpiece, fixtures or itself.
- Coordinated motion
- Several axes (arm, rail and positioner) moving simultaneously under one plan so the torch follows the seam continuously.
- Degrees of freedom
- The number of independent ways a mechanism can move. Placing a tool in space requires six.
- Digital twin
- A digital representation of equipment, geometry or production state; its scope and accuracy depend on the data connected to it.
- EtherCAT
- An industrial Ethernet fieldbus designed for fast, deterministic communication with many drives and I/O devices.
- External axis
- Any motion axis outside the robot arm, such as a rail, gantry, lift or positioner, controlled together with the robot.
- FCAW
- Flux-cored arc welding: an arc process using a tubular wire filled with flux, with or without shielding gas. Common in shipbuilding.
- Fillet weld
- A weld of roughly triangular cross-section joining two surfaces at an angle, such as a stiffener to a plate.
- Fit-up
- How parts are positioned relative to each other before welding, including gaps and alignment.
- Gantry
- An overhead structure that carries robots across a large work area.
- GMAW
- Gas metal arc welding (MIG/MAG): an arc process using a continuously fed solid wire and shielding gas.
- Heat input
- Energy delivered to the weld per unit length, typically calculated from current, voltage and travel speed.
- ISO 10218
- International standards for safety of industrial robots (Part 1) and robot systems and applications (Part 2). References to standards are educational and do not indicate Catfish certification.
- Laser seam tracking
- Using a laser line sensor to measure joint location and geometry and correct the robot path.
- Mission Control
- Catfish OS module that schedules and supervises work across robots and cells.
- Null-space motion
- Movement of a redundant robot’s joints that changes its shape without moving the tool.
- Offline programming
- Creating robot programs in software, typically from CAD, without using the robot on the floor.
- OPC UA
- An open, platform-independent standard for industrial data exchange.
- Positioner
- A device that holds and rotates or tilts a workpiece to present joints in favorable welding positions.
- PQR
- Procedure Qualification Record: documentation of the test weld and results that qualify a WPS.
- PROFINET
- An industrial Ethernet standard for automation communication.
- R15.06
- ANSI/A3 R15.06: the U.S. standard for industrial robot safety. Parts 1 and 2 adopt ISO 10218-1:2025 and ISO 10218-2:2025; Part 3 addresses use of industrial robot cells. References to standards are educational and do not indicate Catfish certification.
- Redundant robot
- A robot with more joints than needed to place its tool, such as a seven-axis arm.
- Repeatability
- How closely a robot returns to the same position over repeated moves.
- Risk assessment
- Structured identification of hazards and evaluation and reduction of risk, required by robot safety standards.
- Seam tracking
- Real-time correction of the torch path to follow the actual joint during welding.
- Singularity
- A robot configuration where it loses the ability to move the tool in some direction.
- Stiffener
- A plate or profile welded to a panel to increase stiffness; very common in hull structures.
- TCP
- Tool center point: the reference point on a robot tool used to define its position and programmed path.
- Touch sensing
- Locating a joint by touching the wire or nozzle to the part and detecting electrical contact.
- Travel speed
- How fast the torch moves along the joint.
- W7
- Catfish Vanguard's seven-axis industrial robot.
- Weld family
- A group of joints that share type, material, thickness range, position and procedure.
- WPS
- Welding Procedure Specification: a written document giving the parameters for making a weld to code requirements.
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