Thread control for welding wire
AssigneeLincoln Global, Inc.
InventorGeoffrey Lipnevicius
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A wire feeding control mechanism and method to obtain a certain stick-out of welding wire from a tip of a welding gun.
Claims48
A wire feeding control mechanism to obtain a stick-out of welding wire from a tip of a welding gun prior to the welding wire contacting a workpiece and prior to the beginning of a welding process on the workpiece comprising a wire feeder that advances the welding wire, a positive verification mechanism that determines an actual amount of welding wire protruding from said tip of said welding gun, a controller to terminate advancement of said welding wire by said wire feeder after said positive verification mechanism detects that said welding wire has obtained a set stick-out from said tip of said welding gun.
(canceled)
An automatic or semi-automatic welding system comprising a robotic arm, a welding gun connected to said robotic arm, a robotic arm control to control movement of said robotic arm, a wire feeder designed to advance welding wire through said welding gun, wire feeding control mechanism to obtain a certain stick-out of welding wire from a tip of said welding gun and a welding controller to control at least one parameter of a welder, said wire feeding control mechanism including a positive verification mechanism that determines an actual amount of welding wire protruding from said tip of said welding gun prior to the welding wire contacting a workpiece and prior to the beginning of a welding process on the workpiece and a controller to terminate advancement of said welding wire by said wire feeder after said positive verification mechanism detects that said welding wire has obtained a set stick-out from said tip of said welding gun.
A method of automatically controlling stick-out of a welding wire from a tip of a welding gun prior to the welding wire contacting a workpiece and prior to the beginning of a weld process comprising:
- providing a source of welding wire;
- providing a wire feeder to advance said welding wire;
- positively verifying the position of said welding wire that extends from said tip of said welding gun, said positive verification occurring at a location remote to said workpiece;
- causing said wire feeder to advance said welding wire until said welding wire is positively verified at a certain position from said tip of said welding gun;
- and,
- moving said tip of said welding gun to a location of said workpiece to begin the welding of said workpiece.
(canceled)
A method of automatically controlling stick-out of a welding wire from a tip of a welding gun comprising:
- engaging an arc detection circuit;
- moving a welding gun to a preselected distance from a fixed detection point, said detection point positioned at a location remotely from a workpiece to later be welded by the welding gun;
- and,
- advancing said welding wire until said welding wire is detected at said fixed detection point.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.