In the 70s Japanese car companies were making efforts in improving productivity to catch up with the big three in the States. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., the first robot manufacturer in Japan, undertook a task of replacing the previous manual spot welding with robot spot welding in cooperation with car body production engineers and in 1972 delivered the first robotized spot welding line in Japan.
This triggered quick and wide robotization in car body assembly in Japan and Japanese auto companies could compete with western car companies owing to the improvement of productivity and quality. This article introduces the facts along with photos.
