Transcript AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS FOR COMPLEX HOT WIRE …

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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIES
AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS
FOR
COMPLEX HOT WIRE WELDING AND CLADDING APPLICATIONS
“DSP” Based Control and Power Supply Products
PRESENTATION OVERVIEW
 Present basic review of the Hot Wire Process and its uses
 Present control architectures, automation interface, and process-monitoring
requirements
 Review several automated systems that perform critical narrow-groove welding and
cladding operations.
 Demonstrate software solutions that provide virtual alignment to compensate for
torch/part misalignment, joint feature tracking for real-time compensation of torch-to-part
movement, and internal cladding of valves with intersecting bores.
HOT WIRE BACKGROUND

Process Basics
 Incoming wire is resistance heated to near the melting point via
a power supply connected to the wire feed tube
 Wire is typically added to the rear of the pool
 Wire typically enters the pool at a high angle >45°
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Process Results
 Increase productivity by up to 8-10 times
 Increased fill rates, travel speed, and narrower joint
design
 1/4”-1/2” root land width and 2-6° bevel angle
 Double travel rates from GTA
 2-4 times wire feed rates (up to 300 ipm in the flat
position, depending on quality requirements)
 Maintains GTA weld quality
 Allows splitting energy between the main arc and the wire
heating
 Preheating the wire to the melting point makes the wire feed
into the pool smoother
 Can provide greater control of pool size and side wall erosion
 Provides greater control of slope in and slope out of weld pool
and wire deposition
 Improved control of dilution for cladding operations
Approximately 50% of our systems are Hot Wire
TRAVEL
WORK
HOT WIRE BACKGROUND
Equipment
 Hot Wire Power Supplies for GTA or Plasma
 DC Supplies
 Wire typically feed into the front of pool
 Can have wire feed synchronized with current
pulse
 AC Supplies (mitigate arc blow)
 Wire typically feed into the the rear of pool
 Variable Frequency
•
Improves flow of wire into the weld pool
 Hot Wire Torch
 Contact for transferring current to wire
 Gas coverage optional
 Voltage / Current Control Sensing
 Power supply vs. torch (accounting for cable
losses)
 Camera Systems
 Bore Considerations (size, heat, ext. lighting)
 Water / Gas Cooling
HOT WIRE - “More Fill Faster”
“GTA QUALITY AT THE SPEED OF GMA”

Applications
 Improve production rates on high volume products
 Reduce the total weld time for thick wall products
 Product requirements that can’t be met with GMA/SMAW
 Cladding to reduce overall cost of products
 Expensive clad on lower cost material
 Cladding to produce bi-metallic products
 Surface protection on high strength base
 Cladding to repair casting or other process related defects
 Quality vs Productivity
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6-5/8 / 1.062 wall
High Production - 15 Minutes
High Quality - 60 Minutes
Boilers and Pressure Vessels
Chemical Plant Piping
Nuclear Vessels
Oil and Gas Thick Section Pipe
Oil and Gas Drilling and Production Riser Pipe
Oil and Gas Valve Products
Mining and Exploration Products
HOT WIRE / AUTOMATION
Advantages
• Higher production rates because of continuous processing
• Narrow gap bevel options / Less weld metal required
• Automation provides for the ability to continuously make the
root and fill passes, even if the root pass is cold wire /
Higher productivity
• More process consistency resulting in more consistent joints
with improved weld strength, toughness / Fewer repairs
• Ability to weld high strength steels and alloys / Higher
component properties
• Reduces human error factor / Higher quality and
productivity, especially with long duration welds
• Less physical strain on welders especially on long
welding/cladding processes / higher quality and
productivity
• Less manpower/equipment for heavy wall and large
diameter components / lower processing costs
• Documentation / traceability / Better QA-QC
• Ease of training welders
Disadvantages
• More complex systems
• Higher initial system cost
• Higher level of control equipment is required
AUTOMATION SYSTEM DESIGN
 Establish Requirements, Develop Concepts, Model Concepts, Fabricate and Test
AUTOMATION CONTROL
AUTOMATION CONTROL REQUIREMENTS
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Basic Control Parameters
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Weld Current
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Part / Torch Motion and Position
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Hot Wire Voltage / Current
Arc Voltage Control
Magnetic Oscillation
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Synchronization capability
Mechanical Oscillation
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Synchronization capability
Hot Wire Frequency
Wire Nozzle Position
Sensor Integration
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Synchronized with Pulsation / Oscillation
Advanced Control Parameters
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Coordinated motion for spiral, tapered bore, and intersecting bore
cladding
Jog offset / override
Multi-pass for thick sections
Synchronized with pulsation
Wire Feed Speed
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Pulsation
Joint Tracking
Inter-pass Temperature
Independent Part Position
Gap Measurement
Override Capability
Video Monitoring / Recording
Process Monitoring / Data Acquisition
XM Modular Architecture
Pendant/
Operator
Display
CAN BUS
Power Supply
Control
Module
Power
Supply
AVC
Control
Linear
Slide/
Servo
Motor/
Encoder
Voltage
Sensor
Servo
Axis
Control
(Travel)
Servo
Motor/
Encoder
Linear/
Rotational
Mech
Osc.
Control
Linear
Slide/ Servo
Motor/
Encoder
Gas Solenoid
Fault Sensors
Current Sensor
Wire
Feed
Control
Wire Feed/
Servo
Motor/
Encoder
Additional
Control
HIGH PRODUCTION SYSTEMS
Mult-Station Conventional Welding
Applications Requiring Higher
Production Rates
 0.125” to 0.250” Stainless Steel
 Multi-process / Multi-Station
 GTA Cold and Hot Wire Feed
 Girth or Plug Weld Capability
 DSP based control
 Magnetic Oscillation
 Integrated AVC
 Either Z or X axis
 Process Monitoring / Verification
MULTI-PROCESS SYSTEMS
Critical property and high
production requirements for
sub-sea oil and gas welding
applications
Precision Hot Wire Valve Body
Welding / Bore Cladding System
- Thick section hot wire process
-Helical bore cladding
-3 Station production system
INTERSECTING BORE SYSTEMS
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o
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BelWeld / ERC Intersecting Bore
Cladding Systems for Straight
and Tapered Bores - Inconel
Weld Overlay
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o
MULTIPLE INTERSECTING BORES
SEAL PASS CAPABILITY
STRAIGHTFORWARD
PROGRAMMING INTERFACE
INTEGRATED VIDEO
HOT WIRE BORE TORCHES
INTERSECTING BORE
SYSTEMS
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BelWeld / ERC Intersecting Bore Cladding
Systems for Straight and Tapered
Bores - Inconel Weld Overlay
MULTIPLE INTERSECTING BORES
SEAL PASS CAPABILITY
STRAIGHTFORWARD
PROGRAMMING INTERFACE
INTEGRATED VIDEO
HOT WIRE BORE TORCHES
NARROW GROOVE SYSTEMS
GTA Hot Wire
Thick Section
Narrow Groove
Naval Components
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VIRTUAL CENTERING
ADAPTIVE GAP CONTROL
INTEGRATED DATA BASE
INTEGRATED VIDEO
INDEPENDENT MONITORING
NARROW GROOVE SYSTEMS
Critical property and high
production requirements for
sub-sea oil and gas welding
applications
SMI Precision Hot Wire Pipe/Bore
Cladding System
- Thick section narrow-grove hot wire process
- Helical bore cladding
SENSORS
POSITION SENSORS
 Tactile
 Scanning Lasers
 Mechanically Scanned Laser
 Closed Loop Position Control
 Single-point proximity laser
 Determines feature vs. cross seam
position
 Allows programmed offset from
identified feature by pass
 Allows operator offset from identified
feature
 Can identify root gaps and modify
control setpoints
AUTOMATION INTERFACE
Interface Demonstration
DSP’s, Data Acquisition, & Process Monitoring
 Data Acquisition is the collection of the welding data. DSP’s are designed
to perform this at very high rates. This high-speed data is necessary to
accurately represent the process which was performed. However it can
be very difficult and usually unmanageable to review large amounts of raw
data.
 Process Monitoring is the analysis of the welding data to determine that
the process was performed as programmed and the overall variation in the
process. This analysis is often performed after the welding process due to
the computer processing requirements. Again dedicated DSP’s are an
exceptional platform to provide focused processing power for this “realtime” analysis.
 The results of the analyzed data, which is significantly less data, can then
be transported via the network for printing, storage, etc. as a record of
process performance.
Sample Advent feedback without
filtering
Sample Advent feedback with
DSP filtering
Process Monitoring Information
 Dedicated DSP’s can provide “real-time” sampling, processing
and analysis of welding data. The high speed analysis of the
data can ensure that the process is monitored at a high rate but
the data can be statistically evaluated to reduce the overall
data for review and storage.
 Data can be analyzed in real-time to determine:
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Weld current pulsation and AC performance
Arc Voltage consistency
Torch / Part Position and Velocity performance
Statistical Minimums, Maximums, Averages, Std. Deviations and
other parameters
 Out-of-Tolerance Magnitudes, Positions, and Durations.
 This important and powerful capability allows the data to be
pre-processed as the welding is being performed so that only
significant and relevant “processed” data needs to be recorded.
SUMMARY
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HOT WIRE POWER SUPPLIES AND CONTROLS ARE RAPIDLY IMPROVING AND FINDING GREATER
ACCEPTANCE AS THE OPTIMAL AUTOMATION SOLUTION TO OBTAINING HIGHER PRODUCTION THAN GTACWF PROCESSES AND/OR IMPROVED PROPERTIES OVER GMA AND SUB-ARC APPLICATIONS.
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CONTROL HARDWARE / SOFTWARE AND SENSOR INTEGRATION ARE EXPANDING THE CAPABILITIES OF
ALL PROCESSES, INCLUDING HOT WIRE TO BE EFFECTIVELY USED FOR APPLICATIONS WITH DIFFICULT
GEOMETRIES AND CRITICAL MATERIAL PROPERTY REQUIREMENTS.
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SOPHISTICATED, MODULAR, NETWORKED BASED SYSTEMS THAT CAN PRODUCE OUTSTANDING WELDS
FOR COMPLEX WELDING OPERATIONS, INCLUDING INTERSECTING BORES, MULTI-PASS THICK SECTION
NARROW GROOVE, AND TAPERED BORES ARE MORE AVAILABLE AND PROVEN THAN EVER. THESE
SYSTEMS ARE PROVIDING SIGNIFICANT PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS OVER MANUAL OR
SEMI-AUTOMATED PROCESSES
AMET
 22,000 sq.ft. Manufacturing/Development
Facility
 GTA / GMA / Plasma
Development/Production Systems
 Circuit Board Design / Automated
Electronics Manufacturing
 Automated Machine Shop Capabilities
 42 Engineering and Technical Personnel
AMET DSP Controller Products
XM Controller
Multiple Channel
Position based
Process Monitoring
Easily Expandable
VPC 450
Variable Polarity Power Supply
Advent Controller
Multiple Channel
Position Based
Coordinated Motion
Integrated Data Monitoring
Integrated Video
High Speed Power Module Inverter
450 Amp 100% Duty Cycle
Intelligent DSP Controls
DC/VP/AC/Mixed VP Modes of Operation
Local or Remote Control