Innovative Automated Technology Increases Efficiency in Aluminum Welding

Aluminum is being increasingly used across a wide range of industries, but remains a difficult material to work with due to slow welding speeds and significant time required for pre- and post-cleaning. Linde Gases (Murray Hill, NJ) has launched ARCLINE® PP, an innovative new automated welding process to produce high quality and efficient aluminum welds by combining the best of existing welding technologies in one package. This process has been designed to eliminate the compromises made when choosing between tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, which ensures high quality at longer weld times, and metal inert gas welding (MIG), which has faster weld times but can create issues with weld strength and integrity. ARCLINE PP sidesteps these issues that welders face and resolves the dilemma of speed versus quality with an innovative technology to assure outstanding performance via three unique characteristics.

ARCLINE PP features a positively energized tungsten electrode that provides constant cathodic cleaning of the welding area to reduce the risk of inclusions and minimize the need for pre-weld cleaning. Secondly, the technology uses two separate gas streams, whereas other welding technologies employ only one. This process employs an outer shroud of shielding gas to protect the weld of impurities, and an inner stream to increase power density and improve arc stability. Finally, the system is equipped with a sophisticated liquid cooling system to extend the electrode’s lifecycle. “This strong technology ensures durable and innovative aluminum welding without having to make compromises previously experienced when selecting either TIG or MIG welding,” explained Martin Ball, the global head of commercial management for secondary industries at Linde. “By offering the high welding speeds associated with MIG in symbiosis with the high quality expected from TIG, this process is the perfect system of minimal preparation and post-processing at extraordinary speed. It also generates significantly less fume emissions than MIG, enhancing occupational safety.”

ARCLINE PP is an end-to-end system that can provide all components needed to optimize aluminum welding. This includes a water cooler so that the welding torch is efficiently cooled, plus a power source, although it is possible to use existing power sources already used for TIG-AC welding. The system also includes a wire feeding unit allowing for safe feeding of aluminum filler wire, a connector box that allows universal connection of the torch to different types of welding machines, and an automatic height control for constant arc length. ARCLINE PP is particularly suited to manufacturers of trains, road tankers and chemical tanks, as well as ship building and aerospace components.

Linde Gases has also launched the AVANTO™ smart connector, an advanced data capture device to augment the capabilities of their recently introduced welding management system, AVANTO. This technology, a state-of-the-art hardware module that connects to the welding machine, will provide a further layer of information to increase traceability, efficiency and quality assurance in welding processes. The smart connector will capture real-time data about welding operation parameters as they are being performed, such as voltage and current (amps), rate of gas flow, wire speed and arc on/off time. The device is paired wirelessly to a smart phone or tablet and the data collected is transmitted digitally to the cloud-based AVANTO management system, allowing for real-time comparison of parameters as specified in the welding procedure and the actual process steps being performed by the welder. The resulting data also makes it possible to calculate heat input and compare against the specification.

https://youtu.be/4h6YGdhqSBg

AVANTO already allows for the capture, monitoring and analysis of a vast amount of data required to manage a modern welding operation: from job and welding procedure creation, management of welder qualifications to the allocation of resources required to complete a weld, such as consumables, shielding gas, welding equipment and welder. The addition of this smart connector enables welding supervisory personnel to easily recognize discrepancies between planned and actual process procedures, allowing them to identify and remedy potential problems, such as welder performance and productivity issues. “With the addition of this smart connector, this system is set to transform the way welding is performed and documented,” said Daren Siddall, the global marketing manager at Linde. “The combined technologies will be a powerful tool to not only ensure welding to expected standards, but to provide everyone involved in the job, from welding engineers and supervisors to quality assurance managers, with full visibility of the process and easy compilation of documentation packs for customers.”

A key aspect of the smart connector is that it attaches to the standardized euro connector to provide compatibility with the widest number of welding machines. The device is ideally suited to fabricators focused on MIG/MAG welding processes who have welding machines from multiple OEMs. The unit can also be charged via USB cable, though it normally charges automatically when the welding machine is in operation. The smart connector will be available to purchase from Q4 2017 for a one-off fee and as an add-on to the AVANTO service, which is offered via a subscription model. This is a genuine alternative to current welding management offerings that usually comprise high-end welding machines combined with software systems that require professional installation and a high upfront investment.

The introduction of European regulations, such as EN1090 in the structural steel segment, have placed greater emphasis on the need to streamline the collection of welding data required to meet full traceability. Many shops that meet these regulations do so by using manual processes, thereby adding cost and complexity to their business. Initially targeting users in the structural steel segment, AVANTO and smart connector will also address the needs of shops across a number of sectors involved in metal fabrication, including aerospace, oil and gas, construction equipment and wind power.

Linde North America Inc., 575 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, 888-262-6424, www.linde-avanto.com.