ORBITAL WELDING DEVICE WITH SIMPLIFIED HANDLING

Abstract

Disclosed example orbital welding devices include a welding current source in a welding current source housing and a base controller, and an orbital welding head connected to the welding current source by a cable, the orbital welding head having a pipe mount and a welding electrode holder mounted rotatably with respect to the pipe mount for holding a welding electrode. A motor is designed to drive the welding electrode holder. The orbital welding head has a chamber for shielding gas, and an electrical circuit that is connected: to a position sensor designed to generate a position value; and/or to a memory device designed to store one or more loading values and/or one or more calibrating values in the memory device.

Claims

1. An orbital welding apparatus, comprising: a welding current source in a welding current source housing; a base controller; an orbital welding head which is separate from the welding current source housing and is connected to the welding current source via a cable, the orbital welding head comprising: a pipe mount; a welding electrode holder mounted such that the welding electrode holder can rotate relative to the pipe mount and is configured to holding a welding electrode; a chamber for shielding gas which is configured so as to surround the welding electrode and substantially seal the welding electrode off from the outside of the orbital welding head during a welding process; a memory device; and an electrical circuit connected to the memory device and configured to store one or more loading values in the memory device; and a motor configured to drive the welding electrode holder and thus rotate the welding electrode holder with respect to the pipe mount, wherein the electrical circuit is configured to store at least one of the following as the one or more loading values in the memory device: a) at least one of a maximum current or a current accumulated over time corresponding to an electrical charge, of at least one of the welding processes carried out with at least one of the welding electrode or the orbital welding head or arcs carried out with at least one of the welding electrode or the orbital welding head, b) a number of vibrations exceeding a threshold value, or c) a service life of the motor.

2. The orbital welding device as claimed in claim 1, the electrical circuit or the base controller being configured to calculate an orientation value, which represents an orientation of the welding electrode or of the welding electrode holder with respect to gravitational force, in dependence on the position value and in dependence on a turn value, which represents the turning of the welding electrode with respect to the pipe mount.

3. The orbital welding device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the electrical circuit is configured to pass on to the base controller the calculated position value or the calculated orientation value.

4. The orbital welding device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the base controller is configured to carry out an open-loop or closed-loop control of the welding process in dependence on the position value or the orientation value.

5. The orbital welding device as claimed in claim 4, wherein the base controller is configured to load a stored welding process program from the memory device, and the open-loop or closed-loop control of the welding process includes a run of the welding process program, the base controller being configured to shift a starting point at which the run of the welding process program begins in dependence on the position value.

6. The orbital welding device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a display unit configured to present a graphic representation of the orientation of the welding electrode with respect to gravitational force, the orbital welding device being configured to at least one of turn or tilt the graphic representation in dependence on the position value.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0080] The invention will now be illustrated in more detail by way of example on the basis of drawings, in which:

[0081] FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a device according to the invention,

[0082] FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment, based on the first embodiment, of a device according to the invention,

[0083] FIG. 3 shows a third embodiment, based on the first embodiment, of a device according to the invention,

[0084] FIG. 4 shows a fourth embodiment, based on the first, second and third embodiments, of a device according to the invention,

[0085] FIG. 5 is an illustration of an exemplary coordinate system for the use of the position sensor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0086] A detailed description of FIG. 1 will be given below. The embodiment is such that the orbital welding device 1 has a welding current source 10 in a welding current source housing 11 and a base controller 12 therein and has an orbital welding head 20, which is separate from the welding current source housing 11 and is connected to the welding current source 10 by means of a cable 2, the orbital welding head 20 having a pipe mount 21 and a welding electrode holder 22, which is mounted rotatably with respect to the pipe mount 21 and is intended for holding the welding electrode 23, the orbital welding device 1 having an electric motor 31, which is activated by the base controller 12 of the orbital welding device 1 and which is designed to drive the welding electrode holder 22 and thus turn it with respect to the pipe mount 21, the orbital welding head 20 having a chamber 50 for shielding gas, which is designed to surround a welding electrode 23 of the orbital welding head 20 and substantially seal it off from the outside during a welding process, the orbital welding head 20 having an electrical circuit 60 in the form of a digital controller, wherein the electrical circuit 60 is connected: [0087] to a position sensor 41, which the orbital welding head 20 in this case has, the position sensor 41 being designed to generate a position value 41.1; and/or [0088] to a memory device 61, which the orbital welding head 20 in this case has, the electrical circuit 60 being designed to store one or more loading values 61.1 and/or one or more calibrating values 61.2 in the memory device.

[0089] During the operation of the orbital welding device (1), provision is made whereby current is conducted to the orbital welding head 20 from the welding current source 10 by means of the cable 2, the welding electrode holder 22 being driven by means of the motor 31 and turned with respect to the pipe mount 21 of the orbital welding head 20, the welding electrode 23 of the orbital welding head 20 being surrounded and substantially sealed off from the outside during a welding process by the chamber 50 for shielding gas, the electrical circuit 60 of the orbital welding head 20 being operated, wherein, by means of the electrical circuit 60: [0090] the position value 41.1, generated by the position sensor 41, which the orbital welding head 20 in this case has, is processed; and/or [0091] the one or more loading values 61.1 and/or the one or more calibrating values 61.2 are stored in the memory device 61, which the orbital welding head 20 in this case has.

[0092] Depending on the embodiment, the device 1 has the position sensor 41 or the memory 61 or both.

[0093] Here, the cable 2 has a minimum length of 2 m. The pipe mount 21 is a clamping mount formed similarly to a set of tongs. The chamber 50 is designed such that the pipe pieces that are to be welded to one another are enclosed by the chamber 50 at the ends that are to be connected. The chamber 50 has an inlet, for example with a hose connector, for shielding gas, with which the chamber can thus be filled. The chamber 50 is designed such that the welding electrode 23 can be rotated in the chamber 50 about the pipe pieces that are to be welded. Here, the orbital welding head 20 has a housing 90 which adjoins the chamber 50 and which forms for example a handle for a user or a housing for operator control or switch elements and/or the motor 31, and the electrical circuit 60 is arranged in the housing 90.

[0094] The embodiment is such that the position sensor 41 is arranged in a fixed relative position with respect to the pipe mount 21 and in a movable relative position with respect to the welding electrode holder 22 and the position value 41.1 represents an orientation of the pipe mount 21 with respect to gravitational force. Here, the position sensor 41 is arranged in the housing 90. The embodiment is such that the electrical circuit 60 is designed to store in the memory device 61 [0095] a) a number and/or a time period and/or a maximum current and/or a current accumulated over time, corresponding to an electrical charge, of the welding processes carried out with the welding electrode 23 or the orbital welding head 20 and/or arcs and/or [0096] b) a number of specific vibrations, for example exceeding a or various threshold values, and/or [0097] c) an operating time of the motor 31
as the one or more loading values 61.1, by contrast to the situation in FIG. 2.

[0098] A more detailed description of FIG. 2 will be given below. The embodiment is such that the base controller 12 is designed to calculate in dependence [0099] on the position value 41.1 and [0100] on a turn value, which represents the turning of the welding electrode 23 with respect to the pipe mount 21,
an orientation value, which represents an orientation of the welding electrode 23 or of the welding electrode holder 22 with respect to gravitational force. The embodiment is such that the electrical circuit 60 is designed to pass on to the base controller 12 the position value 41.1, the base controller 12 being designed to carry out an open-loop or closed-loop control of a welding process in dependence on the position value 41.1 and the orientation value. The embodiment is such that the base controller 12 is designed to load a stored welding process program from a memory, the open-loop or closed-loop control of the welding process including a run of the welding process program, the base controller 12 being designed to shift a starting point, at which the run of the welding process program begins, and an endpoint, at which the run of the welding process program ends, in dependence on the position value 41.1.

[0101] A more detailed description of FIG. 3 will be given below. The embodiment is such that the orbital welding device 1 has a loading sensor 42 and the electrical circuit 60 or the base controller 12 is designed to determine one or more of the loading values 61.1 from a measured value of the loading sensor 42. The loading sensor 42 in this case has a current sensor of the motor current and of the current conducted into the welding electrode and has an acceleration sensor (for measuring the vibrations). The acceleration sensor is in this case a position sensor 41. It is the same sensor that already serves as a position sensor 41 in the preceding exemplary embodiments. The loading sensor 42 is in this case composed of various elements, which are arranged in a distributed manner in the orbital welding head 20 and the welding current source housing 11. The embodiment is such that the electrical circuit 60 is designed to receive one or more of the loading values 61.1 from the base controller 12.

[0102] A more detailed description of FIG. 4 will be given below. The embodiment is such that the orbital welding head 20 at least partially has the loading sensor 42, the orbital welding head 20 having a battery 70, and the orbital welding head 20 being designed to operate the part of the loading sensor 42 that the orbital welding head 20 has with the aid of the electrical energy provided by the battery 70 and to store one or more of the loading values 61.1 in the memory device 61 by means of the electrical circuit 60. The embodiment is such that the base controller 12 is designed to read out one or more of the loading values 61.1 from the memory device 61 and to emit an alarm signal if one or more of the loading values 61.1 exceeds a threshold value predefined for the respective loading value 61.1. The embodiment is such that the base controller 12 is designed to carry out a calibrating run of the motor 31 and thereby generate the one or more calibrating values 61.2. Here, the electrical circuit 60 is designed to receive one or more of the calibrating values 61.2 from the base controller 12. Here, the base controller 12 is designed to read out one or more of the calibrating values 61.2 from the memory device 61, directly or indirectly via the electrical circuit 60, and to perform open-loop control or closed-loop control of a welding process in dependence on the one or more read-out calibration values 61.2.

[0103] A more detailed description of FIG. 5 will be given below. The roll-pitch-yaw coordinate system is plotted here with the position sensor position as the origin. A mathematical translation of the origin onto the central axis of the pipe mount is preferably performed (dash-dotted line).

REFERENCE DESIGNATIONS

[0104] 1 Orbital welding device [0105] 2 Cable [0106] 10 Welding current source [0107] 11 Welding current source [0108] housing [0109] 12 Base controller [0110] 20 Orbital welding head [0111] 21 Pipe mount [0112] 22 Welding electrode holder [0113] 23 Welding electrode [0114] 31 Motor [0115] 41 Position sensor [0116] 41.1 Position value [0117] 42 Loading sensor [0118] 50 Chamber [0119] 60 Electrical circuit [0120] 61 Memory device [0121] 61.1 Loading value [0122] 61.2 Calibrating value [0123] 70 Battery [0124] 90 Housing