I have made a good living building machines that make welded coatings on a variety of parts around the world. Welding creates strong metallurgical bonds between the coating and the part. But there is another way: thermal spray.
Last week Craig McCormick stopped by to check on his ‘bot. While he was here he asked: “Why do all the ARC people wear red? And why are all the machines painted blue?”
No other arc welding process allows you to make full penetration welds on a variety of metals up to 3/8” thick without a bevel and without filler material. The arc punches through the part creating the “keyhole”, molten metal fills behind the arc making narrow deep weld through the entire section.
We use Tab & Slot construction in our weld shop to fabricate our robotic manufacturing systems. I was introduced to the technique by Richard Holdren who had applied it in the shipbuilding industry.
Plasma Transferred Arc Welding (PTAW) is a great process for robotic joining and overlay. The tightly columnated arc focuses the arc energy in a small area, making torch height less critical. The tungsten electrode is protected. So you change the tungsten less and weld more. PTAW allows the use of powdered filler materials, so you can weld all sorts of composite and exotic metals.
Today was Sandra Morris‘s 10th anniversary at ARC. So I had the privilege of presenting her with a 10 year Rolex watch. This was the 27th watch we have awarded. In the photo below Sandra is surrounded by 14 other 10+ year ARC veterans.
Not many people are aware of the buried arc welding process so it is rarely seen in the industry. This is a shame because no other welding process can make 1-inch fillet welds in a single pass and penetrate 5/8″ into the part. The process is limited to 1G and 1F welds on aluminum.
On this week’s episode of The Roboticist Chronicles, Dan Allford is joined by Cameron Serles, President of XIRIS Automation, Inc... As they talk about the history of arc video monitoring, the various technical applications involved, and how XIRIS does it differently, and why it is better.
Cameron Serles founded Xiris Automation, a developer of machine vision systems, was founded in 1989 but got into arc video monitoring 12 years ago. Dan and Cameron discuss the history of arc video monitoring dating back to the 1980s with Charles Stenning’s Stenning Vision to high dynamic range imaging.
“These welding vision systems are something we use on a lot of ARC Specialties machines. They are a critical part of the technology we sell…”
-Dan Allford
Subscribe to ARC Specialties’ Roboticist Chronicles podcast to learn more about the nuts and bolts of robots, automation, and the implications of an evolving machine workforce.
We are pleased to announce the recent hiring of Jacob Belleau for the position of Technical Sales Engineer. Jacob is a Kansas State University graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
Sometimes less is more! Most butt welds are made using a 75 degree included angle V butt joint and the welder must fill the entire groove. By going to a narrow groove you drastically reduce weld volume, weld metal usage, and production time. Plus weld defect rates are typically measured as a percentage of feet of the weld. If you reduce weld length you reduce defects.
