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Regardless of industry, all robotic arc welding systems have two things in common - the robot has a torch on the end and the manufacturer is interested in increasing productivity and reducing downtime.
Unfortunately, peripheral torch maintenance equipment often is overlooked, or these accessories are treated as nonessential options during the purchase of a robot system. However, considering that $5,000 to $10,000 of peripheral equipment would provide several more minutes of production per shift from your $100,000+ robotic welding cell, the relatively minor additional investment in peripheral equipment can yield significant benefits. The return on these peripherals certainly will be less than one year, in part because of the reduced rework and less demand on maintenance personnel.
Torch Cleaning Station
The most common peripheral accessory in a robotic welding cell is a nozzle cleaning station.
Weld spatter build-up on the torch nozzle can interfere with the proper flow of shielding gas and can lead to porosity in the weld, causing poor quality parts. Automated torch cleaning improves quality and reduces downtime.
The frequency of nozzle cleaning varies greatly depending on the application -from every few parts in an automotive environment to several times on a single part for a large weldment on a construction machine. Often, a sprayer is used to deliver antispatter compound inside the nozzle to make it easier to remove the spatter on the next cleaning cycle (see figures1 and 2).
The following tips will help you optimize the use of your automatic torch cleaning stations:
* Do not wait until the nozzle has collected a heavy ring of spatter before performing a cleaning cycle. This excessively wears the nozzle cleaner. Additionally, if the spatter ring is too heavy, the cleaner does not always remove all of the spatter.
* Try different adjustments to the anti-spatter injector to find the optimum balance. You want a light coating on the inside of the nozzle -not excess droplets that drip from the nozzle and onto the parts.
* Inspect the torch when tips are changed to verify that gas ports are not plugged and that the nozzle is completely clear of spatter. Some users replace nozzles at the time of tip change and have operators clean the nozzles off-line for reuse later.
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