SWR+HyperFill from Novarc Technologies uses Lincoln Electric’s two-wire metal arc welding technology to fill and seal pipe welds.
Welding short pipes is a complex process. The diameter and thickness of the walls are slightly different, it’s just the nature of the beast. This makes fitting an act of compromise and welding an act of accommodation. This process is not easy to automate, and there are fewer good pipe welders than ever before.
The company also wants to keep its excellent pipe welders. Good welders probably won’t want to weld 8 hours straight at 1G while the pipe is in a rotating chuck. Perhaps they have tested 5G (horizontal, tubes cannot rotate) or even 6G (non-rotating tubes in an inclined position), and they hope to be able to use these skills. Soldering 1G requires skill, but experienced people may find it monotonous. It can also take a very long time.
However, in recent years, more automation options have emerged in the pipe manufacturing plant, including collaborative robots. Novarc Technologies of Vancouver, British Columbia, which launched the collaborative Spool Welding Robot (SWR) in 2016, has added Lincoln Electric’s HyperFill twin-wire metal arc welding (GMAW) technology to the system.
“This gives you a larger arc column for high volume welding. The system has rollers and special contact tips so you can have two wires run in the same conduit and build a larger arc cone allowing you to weld almost twice as much deposited material.”
So, said Soroush Karimzade, CEO of Novarc Technologies, which unveiled the SWR+Hyperfill technology at FABTECH 2021. Comparable deposition rates can still be obtained for pipes [walls] from 0.5 to 2 inches. ”
In a typical setup, the operator sets up the cobot to perform a single-wire root pass with one torch, then removes and replaces the torch as usual with another torch with a 2-wire GMAW setting, increasing fill. Deposits and blocked passages. . “This helps reduce the number of passes and reduce heat input,” Karimzadeh said, adding that heat control helps improve welding quality. “During our in-house testing, we were able to achieve high impact test results down to -50 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Like any workshop, some pipe workshops are diversified enterprises. They may rarely work with heavy-walled pipes, but they have an idle system in the corners in case such work occurs. With the cobot, the operator can use a single wire setup for thin wall tubing and then switch to a dual torch setup (one wire for the root canal and dual wire GMAW for filling and closing the canals) when processing thick wall tubing that was previously required for the piping system of the subarc system. welding.
Karimzadeh adds that a dual torch setup can also be used to increase flexibility. For example, a dual torch cobot can weld both carbon steel and stainless steel pipes. With this arrangement, the operator will be using two torches in a single wire configuration. One torch will supply filler wire for carbon steel work and the other torch will supply wire for stainless steel pipe. “In this configuration, the operator will have an uncontaminated wire feed system for a second torch designed to work with stainless steel,” says Karimzadeh.
According to reports, the system can make adjustments on the fly during critical root passes. “During the root pass, when you go through the tack, the gap widens and narrows depending on the fit of the pipe,” explains Karimzade. “To accommodate for this, the system can detect sticking and perform adaptive welding. That is, it automatically changes the welding and motion parameters to ensure proper blending on these tacks. It can also read how the gap changes and change the motion parameters to make sure that you do not blow, so that the correct root pass is made.”
The cobot system combines laser seam tracking with a camera that gives the welder a clear view of the wire (or wire in a two-wire setup) as the metal flows into the groove. For years, Novarc has used welding data to create NovEye, an AI-driven machine vision system that makes the welding process more autonomous. The goal is for the operator not to be constantly in control of the welding, but to be able to move away to perform other tasks.
Compare all this to an application involving manual root canal preparation followed by a quick pass and manual hot canal preparation with a grinder to clean the surface of the root canals. After that, the short tube finally moves into the filling and capping channel. “This often requires moving the pipeline to a separate site,” Karimzade adds, “so more material needs to be handled.”
Now imagine the same app with cobot automation. Using a single wire setup for both root and overlay canals, the cobot welds the root and then immediately starts filling the canal without stopping to resurface the root. For thick pipe, the same station can start with a single wire torch and switch to a twin wire torch for subsequent passes.
This collaborative robotic automation could be life-changing in a pipe shop. Professional welders spend most of their time making the most difficult pipe welds that cannot be done with a rotary chuck. Beginners will pilot cobots alongside veterans, view and control welds, and learn how to make quality pipe welds. Over time (and after practice in the 1G manual position) they learned how to maneuver the torch and eventually passed the 5G and 6G tests to become professional welders themselves.
Today, a newbie working with a cobot may be embarking on a new career path as a pipe welder, but innovation doesn’t make it any less effective. In addition, the industry needs good pipe welders, especially ways to improve the productivity of these welders. Pipe welding automation, including collaborative robots, is likely to play an increasing role in the future.
Tim Heston, Senior Editor of The FABRICATOR, has been in the metal fabrication industry since 1998, starting his career with the American Welding Society’s Welding Magazine. Since then, it has covered all metal fabrication processes from stamping, bending and cutting to grinding and polishing. He joined The FABRICATOR in October 2007.
FABRICATOR is North America’s leading steel fabrication and forming magazine. The magazine publishes news, technical articles and success stories that enable manufacturers to do their job more efficiently. FABRICATOR has been in the industry since 1970.
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