Automatic Welding System

POPWELD portable welding manipulator MNP-600 is used in applications of automated welding, where precision and efficiency are nepocessary. It provides weld boom stiffness, welding head stability, operator controls, and ease of use as key driving factors

Generally, our welding manipulators are indispensable for applications that involve pipes and vessels, where they maximize productivity and efficiency. Our MNP-600 reduces rework/scrap and the final results aren't skilled dependable since the whole process is automated. They are ideal for hard automation welding solutions and they offer modular construction that ensures 360-degrees radial accessibility to welding heads, covering vast areas in the shop.

INTRODUCTION

Introducing popweld’s Automated GTAW (TIG) Long & Girth Seam Welding Manipulator powered by EWM Tetrix 552 AC/DC with cooling unit. This unit uses a range of cutting edge technologies allowing operators to take full control over weld parameters and work with difficult materials.

WELDING MANIPULATOR SYSTEM BENEFITS

The unit is capable of high quality GTAW welding speeds of up to 23 inches per minute. To be able to control the process at such speed, the unit is also equipped with popweld’s proprietary Tilt-Rotate-Pendulum Oscillator (TRPO) that allows full control over weld head settings and quick adjustment of rear mount camera or sensor. Moreover, the LJ’s Automated GTAW Long & Girth Welding Manipulator is powered with the Through-Arc Height Tracking (TAHT) that maintains a steady arc length throughout the weld, ensuring optimum weld quality.

WELDING MANIPULATOR RENTAL DESCRIPTION

Column & Boom Manipulator Rental easily integrates with PEMA roller-beds and positioners. Operators also use them for welding longitudinal and circumferential seams. Our MNC4-100 rental has a loading capacity of 250 lb and boom/column stroke of 48". A wide selection of accessories and options is available depending on the customer's request and need. As far as the welding source options are concerned, we offer submerged arc (SAW), MIG, or a solution to the customer’s specification. We also offer control upgrades including full integration to pop welding positioners or turning rolls through HMI touchscreens and master PLC.

Column & Boom Manipulator allow maximum flexibility to welding head manipulation which results in a higher quality of welds. Another benefit is the low skill cap for operators due to automated processes. Generally, our welding manipulators are indispensable for applications that involve pipes and vessels.

Super Duty Cladding, Build Up & Overlay Side-Beam/Gantry Manipulator

Welding Automation is introducing a new Super Duty Cladding, Build Up & Overlay Side-Beam/Gantry Manipulator. Besides being compatible with a variety of industry leading power sources, this unit is also capable of integrating turning rolls or positioners and can be customized to customer requirements.

Super Duty Cladding, Build Up & Overlay Side-Beam/Gantry Manipulator is equipped with a precision, 3-axis, weld head control. The primary boom axis provides 30 feet or more of travel, up to 15 in/min with precision speed control. The secondary boom axis provides 41 inches of horizontal reach and lastly the vertical boom provides 48 inches of travel. When it comes to control, this unit is fitted with a HMI touch screen that allows for control over each axis of motion and full integration with the material handling system. The HMI control box also features industry-leading “topflight” tactile controls for more straightforward and simple handling. Moreover, the unit is equipped with the Through-Arc Height Tracking (TAHT) that maintains consistent arc lengths throughout build-up, overlay or cladding operations, ensuring optimum quality.

Description

A pipe spool fabrication facility  needed to alleviate the bottleneck of time consuming pipe/flange/elbow fit-up with a  range of 2" through 60" diameter.  Fit-up cycle times were taking several hours on average and required a welder/fitter and one helper.  In addition, the customer needed height adjustable welding positioner with torque output suitable to handle the very large offset loads required.

The customer chose popweld Welding Automation as their partner after considering other manufacturers' offerings for the following reasons:

1. The customer's sister facility had fully outfitted their pipe spooling shop with popweld equipment over the past 10 years and could directly speak to equipment quality, fast lead times, training and after-market support.
2. Reliability and reputation was what the multi-billion dollar company built itself on and needed a partner that embodied these key values.
3. The customer toured popweld's manufacturing facilities to review QC, Engineering and Fabrication ability.
4. After meeting with popweld's engineering group, they knew that popweld had both the experience, creativity, and capacity to meet looming tight production timelines set by their management.

Process

The customer was using a combination of roller frame cribbing, shimming and cranes. The work piece was fitted with the crane onto the ROLLER and cribbing, positioned and repositioned until eventually the pipe was ready to weld. Often the use of sledge hammers were used for the fine adjustment. This typically would take a couple of hours with 2 workers.

The LJ Solution

POPWELD was able to design a custom system, build, train and deliver the first 40T SYSTEM to the customer.

The following key components were refined to best optimize the customer's budget and specification needs:

40 Ton for highly productive A crane would load the pipe sections onto the rollers and the 40TMR alignment roll system would quickly fit up the pipe for tacking.

The roller system enables alignment utilizing hydraulically actuated idlers (up and down, left and right) and lateral track motion (rail system) for bringing the pipe sections together, without the use of wood cribbing, manual jacks, and constant crane reconfigurations.  

popweld isolated the main concerns, and solved each one. The new system would look like this (2 production cells on same track system):

The Customer's New Process

• A pipe is loaded onto each pair of idler/driver – driver/idler
• Once pipes are in place, the fit-up is completed by one operator using a combination of a touchscreen HMI and joystick. move pipe up/down/in/out/left/right/slight tilt/rotate. Pipe is manipulated into a perfect fit-up position.
  
  

• Welder tack welds, then completes a root pass.

Weld manipulator further 

• Completed double joints are then sent for further processing

The Bottom Line

Cycle Time: 2 ¾ Hour (65% reduction from old process)

Labor:  1 welder, 1 assistant (83% reduction in labor)

Available productivity options:

• Weld Cameras
• Data Acquisition
• iPad Controls

HSE Results:

• Reduced risk of dropped loads, as no overhead cranes are used.
• No manual uncontrolled pipe manipulation – no sledgehammers.
• Removal of unsafe wood cribbing with the introduction of automated pipe manipulation
• Worker can safely operate entire system from a safe distance

popwelding was recently tasked with building a pipe welding system to improve throughput, quality and safety. As a global provider of efficient and integrated boiler room solutions for applications of any size, approached with the requirements to build a system that would reduce costs, increase safety, and improve quality in their operations.

By leveraging PC-based automation from in our latest pipe welding system popWelding was able to implement a pipe welding system that exceeded Cleaver-Brooks' requirements and helped to nearly triple the production efficiency. 

Other improvements accomplished:

• On average, reduced arc time by 63%

• Reduced weld clean-up time by 90%

• Reduced rework by 10%

• Decreased filler metal spend by 39%

Transition from Bolt-On to an Integrated Approach

The universal approach to building welding cells has been lagging behind. As the Principal Automation Engineer at popWelding, use the world of welding equipment can be summarized into two words: Bolt-On

With adding  or “bolting-on” more subsystems to the cell, Soon, your welding cell has seven control panels and needs a massive power bar to feed them all. Down the line, this approach becomes complicated as the maintenance for such a design is unsustainable, the technologies advance and the customers using the equipment demand more modular solutions. 

At popWelding, it was understood early on that in order to be a key differentiator in the marketplace, the transition to integrated approach was inevitable. VP of Product Development at popWelding. Over the last 17 years, we have expanded rapidly, and now we have hundreds of products as well as many custom, application-specific solutions. We can also tie together multiple pieces of equipment and provide complete turnkey plant design.