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US 4,380,695 AGranted
Control of torch position and travel in automatic welding
AssigneeCrutcher Resources Corporation
InventorJerome W. Nelson
Life of this patent
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AssigneeCrutcher Resources Corporation
InventorJerome W. Nelson
Estimating the term…
To maintain control of arc position in travel along a predetermined welding path, wherein the arc or equivalent heat source is given at least a minimal lateral reciprocation, an electrical characteristic, such as current, is sampled to obtain a continuous signal containing a component which varies with lateral position of the heat source. The first signal is also sampled at the extreme lateral positions of the arc to obtain comparable signal elements which are accumulated, amplified, compared with each other and/or with reference signals, and resultant outputs are used to initiate corrective action. This action may involve giving warning to a human operator or it may involve partial or full control of a physical or mechanical correction procedure. A general application is to the welding of a groove formed between adjacent work pieces. A more specific application is to weld joints involving narrow gaps between length of large pipe in pipeline building. The invention is applicable also to situations wherein lateral oscillation is not really required for gap filling but is used merely as a means to isolate control signals for maintaining an accurate center or main line travel position of the arc of heat source. Moreover, the invention may have a more general application, wherever guidance is desired along a main path that contains any element that effects signal amplitude of a probe characteristic relative to the lateral position of the element where the signal may be masked by noise.
In welding where an electric arc welding torch moves in an undulating path along a gap having spaced opposed sidewalls to deposit metal in said gap for joining said walls into a unitary structure and where a continuous signal having various frequency components is generated at the torch and in which the torch is caused to weave laterally across said gap, the steps of:
In welding wherein a torch which weaves laterally back and forth across a mean welding path and towards and away from predetermined extreme lateral positions along said path where the welding current tends to rise when the torch approaches said extreme lateral positions, the steps comprising:
In welding where an electric arc welding torch moves along a gap having spaced opposed sidewalls to deposit metal in said gap for joining said walls into unitary structure and in which the torch is caused to weave laterally across said gap, the steps of:
In welding where an electric arc welding torch moves in an undulating path along a gap having spaced opposed sidewalls to deposit metal in said gap for joining said walls into a unitary structure and where a continuous signal having various frequency components is generated at the torch and in which the torch is caused to weave laterally across said gap, the steps of:
In welding wherein a torch which weaves laterally back and forth across a mean welding path and towards and away from predetermined extreme positions along said path where the welding current tends to rise when the torch approaches said extreme lateral positions, the steps comprising:
In welding where an electric arc welding torch moves along a gap having spaced opposed sidewalls to deposit metal in said gap for joining said walls into unitary structure and in which the torch is caused to weave laterally across said gap, the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.