Research on Grinding Mechanism of Wall-Climbing Grinding Robot for Large Spherical Tank

Abstract

The structural integrity of spherical tanks is very important. Weld grinding is a significantly necessary preparation of the non-destructive testing. Due to the need for scaffolding, poor operating conditions and low grinding efficiency, manual grinding has become an undesirable method of weld grinding, and automated inspection techniques are preferred for using in weld grinding. In order to improve the grinding efficiency of welds, the present work introduced an automatic wall-climbing grinding robot technology according to the grinding process requirements of the spherical tank wall. The design requirements and device structure component of the grinding robot were analyzed. A visualized wall-climbing grinding robot adopting a swing-arm mechanism was designed and tested by comparing the grinding performance of different grinding head mechanisms. The weld grinding results shows that the designed wall-climbing grinding robot has good grinding performance, which effectively improves the automation level of the weld grinding.