US 4,935,597 AGranted

Process and a device for finding and following a hollow weld in shielded arc welding

AssigneeKuka Schweissanlagen & Roboter GmbH

InventorErnst Zimmer

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Abstract

The invention concerns a process and a device for seeking and following a hollow weld during a shielded arc welding, especially welding with carbon dioxide gas. The welding torch is moved by a path-controlled manipulator, whereby prior to the welding the positional coordinates of one or more weld reference point of the hollow weld are found by mechanical contour probing and the actual position of the hollow weld found therefrom is saved in the path control. The lengthwise guidance is then done only through the appropriately corrected path control, only the height of the welding torch above the toe of the weld being adjusted in dependence on the welding current. The mechanical contour probing is done by contact sensing of the sides of the weld adjacent to the weld reference point, and the coordinates of the weld root point are computed from these data. For this purpose, the welding torch can swivel in its mounting and is provided with a switching disc which lifts away upon contact with the weld sides by deflection of the welding torch and sends a switching signal.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A process for seeking and following an area running along a region of abutting elements to be joined, at a predetermined angle with respect to each other, by a fillet weld, comprising the steps of:

positioning a welding torch at a preprogrammed search point between the elements to be joined;
moving the welding torch in the direction of a first of the elements to be joined until the torch comes into mechanical contact with the first element at a first point of contact;
sensing the mechanical contact between the torch and the first element at the first point of contact and saving the three-dimensional location of the first point of contact as a first data value;
subsequent to moving the welding torch to the first point of contact, moving the welding torch in the direction of a second of the elements to be joined until the torch comes into mechanical contact with the second element at a second point of contact;
sensing the mechanical contact between the torch and the second element at the second point of contact and saving a three-dimensional location of the second point of contact as a second data value;
determining a reference point corresponding to the intersection of the first and second elements based on the predetermined angle between the first and second elements and based on the first and second data values and determining a welding path for the torch to follow during a welding process, the welding path overlying the area to be welded, said path being based on the determined reference point.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.