US 6,295,708 B1Granted

Tip cleaning system for welding nozzle

AssigneesJames D. Floro, Dennis A. Spaid

InventorsDennis A. Spaid, James D. Floro, Robin Longenecker

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Abstract

An apparatus and a method are described for dislodging and removing welding slag from the tip of an electric arc welder, particularly a robotically controlled welder. When a torch finishes its welding cycle, it is moved to a designated cleaning point where it is positioned between two positioning blocks. A double lobed cam on the output shaft of a reciprocating air motor turns against a cam follower. The cam causes the cam follower to compress a spring during the lift portion of the cam cycle, and allows the spring to drive the hammer into impact with the tip during the fall portion of the cycle The repeated impact with the tip serves to loosen the slag from the nozzle. The slag then falls and is collected in a basket located beneath the positioning blocks. The motor rotates at a speed of about 200-1000 rpm to move the hammer about {fraction (3/16)}″ for a cleaning cycle of about 5-10 seconds. The apparatus also includes a positioning device for training a welding robot to precisely locate the impact area for a given size and shape of welding nozzle tip.

Claims10

Dependent claims

An apparatus for cleaning slag from the interior of a welding nozzle having a tip, comprising:

a) a holder for positioning the tip of a welding noble at a stationary location away from a welding site;
b) a hammer;
the fist end of the hammer joined to a cam follower that cooperates with a cam to withdraw the hammer from contact with the nozzle tip;
c) means for rapidly and repeatedly striking the hammer against the welding nozzle tip to dislodge slag from the nozzle, said means comprising a reciprocating motor, a spring, and a cam driven by the motor to withdraw the hammer after impact, said holder comprising a cradle including a pair of spaced apart blocks having chamfer surfaces between which the nozzle tip is placed for positioning the tip at a fixed position with respect to the hammer;
and
d) a toggle cooperating with programmable robotics, for the repetitive precise placement of a nozzle tip in the holder, said toggle serving to withdraw the impact face of the hammer a slight distance from the impact area, and for placing the nozzle tip against the impact face of the hammer where this position is remembered by the robotics.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.