The Welder

Xiris Automation has announced the WeldStudio Tracker, new seam tracking software that works with its near-infrared high dynamic range cameras to allow automated welding cells to perform seam tracking and weld process monitoring with a single piece of hardware. The weld camera provides clear images of the weld arc and its surrounding background using 140+dB HDR imaging.

Fronius has introduced the Polaris control system for automated welding systems. It integrates software, system controls, and welding technology into a common architecture and offers a unified operating concept for a variety of automation, from mechanized welding systems to highly automated robotic welding systems. With robotic welding systems, the platform also coordinates complex production workflows involving component handling as well as racking, loading, and unloading systems.

Kemppi has introduced FastBeam 3, a 3-kW handheld laser welding system. Designed for steel, stainless steel, and aluminum, the system gives manufacturers another process option alongside MIG and TIG. In suitable applications, higher welding speeds and controlled heat input can help shorten welding times, limit distortion, and reduce corrective work, the manufacturer reports.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve heard of the Bronze Age and the Iron Age but have never given much thought—at least not since high school—about what time spans they indicated or what exactly happened to lend them their names. As I slid down a rabbit hole of reading up on copper and its alloy bronze for an article in The Fabricator, I finally had cause to start figuring out what happened in the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Rex Alexandre remembers the day in 2020 when his first handheld fiber laser welding machine showed up at SpaceX, courtesy of Elon Musk. “Elon saw this neat Chinese handheld laser welding system on Twitter late one night, before he bought Twitter. He went on Amazon, bought one, and drop-shipped it to me. When it showed up, I thought it was the worst idea I’d ever heard. For my entire career, the Class 4 laser has been inside a box or on a robot in a CNC machine.

Many different industries, such as aerospace, motorsports, truck and trailer, and recreation, have been heavy users of aluminum for the past few decades. As we have discussed in past columns, welding aluminum comes with its own nuances and set of challenges which have led to the evolution of various techniques, best practices, and welding processes.

The request came in on a Wednesday morning. A customer’s quality inspector had reviewed photos of a stainless weldment we shipped and found small black spots on some of the welds. Could we hit them with a wire wheel or a wire brush? He suggested that, from a cosmetic standpoint, it would be better to remove them. The small black spots are commonly known as silica islands (see Figure 1).

Air Liquide Canada, operating as a division of Airgas, an Air Liquide company, has acquired the assets of Oxygène Millénair, a distributor of critical gases and welding supplies to the metal fabrication, construction, automotive, and educational services sectors. Eight employees of the Joliette, Quebec-based company will make the transition to Air Liquide Canada.

THG Automation has developed a cobot automated cold metal transfer twin-wire welding system. Built in collaboration with Fronius and Universal Robots, it is the first automated system of this kind in North America, according to the company. Designed primarily for structural engineering and heavy industry fabrication, the system syncs two Fronius TPS/i power sources and wire feeding units to simultaneously feed a twin-drive CMT push-pull torch.

We recently changed the shielding gas on a dual-classified flux-cored wire. We were using 100% CO because of cost, but we had too much labor tied up in cleaning the welds afterward. We decided to try C25 (a shielding gas mixture composed of 75% argon and 25% CO) to see if that would reduce spatter and cleanup time. Soon after, we started having issues with lack of fusion, slag entrapment, and porosity. Most of our issues are in flat or overhead groove welds. Any thoughts on why this is happening?