Creeping Welder

school project?

You didn't specify what type of automated movement you were after?

If you are welding a seam around a pipe then all you need is a motor connected to a reduction gear drive, powered by a standard variable speed drive (this works very well). Even with this arrangement you are still going to need to weld by hand to ensure quality and consistency.

Can you provide more information please (including specific shape and materials you are planning on welding).

That's pretty slow. Shipyards use this technique all the time to weld up large plates, but at a much faster speed. Their welding torches are usually driven by air motors. Could you be a little more specific on what you want to do?

How about some good stepper motors and CNC software & drivers. That way once you have planned the route and speed in a CAD program, it can repeat it time after time.

Free software comes from EMC2 Sourceforge. This runs under Linux.....on an older PC, you need nothing modern!! Or Mach3 and Lazy CAM, if you want to spend money!!!

Oversize the motors to make sure that you have an excess of power rather than too little. Go for motors and drivers that need 5 amps or more....

Go and look at all the CNC forums on the web for more help and details.

From your question it sounds like you are making straight line welds, as such you should be able to use a modified straight line cutter motor unit. The electronic speed controlled types are best as the circuits can be modified to give a different speed range. I have modified a few of these for welding and they work quite well.

It looks, you are selecting a continuous welding process like MIG, FCAW, SAW, Auto Pulsed TIG etc., for your automation. Otherwise a travel speed of 3 to 6 inches a minute (7.5 to 15 cm /minute) looks very low unless you are welding a thick / plate metal with a higher weld build up per pass.

Otherwise you land up in higher heat in put for the unit length welded, resulting in changes in mechanical properties like impact, distortion, low productivity etc. Even a manual welding will be faster than what you selected and for automation a higher travel speed could be more effective and appropriate. Sridhar

Dear Guest,

I suppose you are looking for moving the welding torch longitudanally in a straight line. Are you moving the job or the torch? It makes a difference.

Anyway for all these applications, in earlier days, it used to be DC Servo motor & Drive but now I think you should consider AC Drives also known as VFDs (Variable Frequency Drives). One caution - your speed reducer has to be a positive drive i.e., it should not have any built in slippages. Go for something like a Planetary gear box or even a timing belt. It is a damn slow speed and you need to be more careful. More appropriate information of the application as well as your location would definitely help.

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On second thought and as assessed by 'Jack of all trades', if you are looking to weld a pipe in the periphery, I designed a machine way back in 1998 and it is still going strong.

I think we need a proper information pleeeeeease