DE102008014814A1 - hosepack - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a hose assembly of an arc welding or -schneidbrenners with at least one current-carrying line (9, 20, 25, 44). The at least one line (9, 20, 25, 44) has an aluminum wire whose outer jacket is provided with a copper layer.

Description

The The invention relates to a hose assembly of an arc welding or cutting torch with at least one current-carrying Management.

State of the art

Arc welding and cutting torches have long been known in the art. Such welding and cutting torches can be designed for manual or automated welding. Arc welding and cutting torch for the Manual use usually have a base and a handpiece on, which are connected via a hose package. For manual arc welding and cutting torches It is necessary to keep the handpiece as free as possible to be able to move. This requires the material in particular a good mechanical resistance to bending and torsion stress exhibit.

Arc welding and cutting torches for automated welding are often like robots with a movable robotic arm constructed, which anfährt the areas to be welded. A hose package is between a base and an effector intended. When automated welding is in favor Welding speeds often high Accelerations of the robot arm worked. The tubes swing within certain limits freely and become thereby high mechanical Exposed to stress.

For Welding requires high levels of power over Power cable transported from the base to the handpiece Need to become. Due to the good electrical conductivity is used for power cables of arc welding and Cutting torch in the prior art excluding copper used. Another property of copper is the good thermal conductivity, which makes it possible, the resulting from the resistance Heat away quickly.

Farther Copper meets the requirements for mechanical properties. In the prior art it is common to use the power cables as To perform strands.

Farther It is known that electrical conductors are made of all metals can be.

A hose package with the features mentioned is also from the DE 15 15 145 A known. The welding cable contains a sheath of flexible synthetic material with a perfectly smooth inner wall to guide the welding wire. This envelope is surrounded by a coiled copper wire bundle or also aluminum wires for conducting the current. The wire bundle is surrounded on the outside by a rubber layer. To strengthen the cable in terms of tensile loads, the conductor may be surrounded by a steel braid.

The DE 85 09 258 U1 discloses a welding line in which a part of the current-carrying leads is made of aluminum and another part of the electrical leads is made of copper. In this case, an inner conductor made of aluminum to which an outer conductor is stranded consisting of copper.

The in copper packages currently used electrical conductors made of copper have the disadvantage that the electrical conductors up to 2/3 of the Make total weight of the hose package and the handle on Duration can be tedious. The loads of the hose packages for automated welding are also increasing with the inert mass of the hose package.

It is therefore an object of the invention, a hose package for specify an arc welding and cutting torch, this compared to the known from the prior art hose packages with copper cables is much lighter, but comparable positive has mechanical properties.

Presentation of the invention

These Task is solved by a hose package according to the Claim 1. Advantageous embodiments are in the subclaims described.

Of the Use of copper-plated aluminum wire as current-carrying Conduction of the hose package has the advantage that on the one hand a Weight saving is achieved, but on the other hand, an occurrence of high temperatures at the transitions between the ladders and the connections is not observed. Presumably, this is due to the fact that the inherently higher contact resistance between Aluminum and the respective connection due to the use of Copper on the aluminum wire is significantly reduced and so on achieving a Weight reduction the electrical and mechanical properties of the electrical conductor compared to the use of conventional Copper conductors are largely retained.

It it is understood that according to a preferred embodiment of the invention all live lines of each conductor are formed as copper-coated aluminum wires. In this case, the individual conductors in the form of individual wires, Litz or the like may be formed.

Besides It has also been shown that the use of copper-plated aluminum wires priced in the hose packages according to the invention much cheaper. This is due to the fact that the processing by a simplified drawing process considerably is simplified.

The Connections of the hose package can be with or the current-carrying lines connected by means of crimp connection be.

A However, preferred variant emphasizes that the current-carrying Wires with the copper-coated aluminum wires by means of an ultrasonic welding process to the connections the hose package are connected.

there can the outer strand of the live wire the hose package is closed directly with a copper sleeve become. The advantage of this connection method is that lower contact resistance and thus also lower temperature increases at the transition point be achieved. This ultrasonic welding process can both aluminum wires and aluminum wires, which have a copper layer on the outer jacket, be used. Furthermore, it has been shown that the strength the connections or the sleeves when using the Ultrasonic welding process significantly increased is opposite to the strength of a crimped connection. As connections Both copper sleeves and steel sleeves be used.

From Advantage, the copper layer of the aluminum wire has a thickness from 1 to 100 μm due to this measure An optimization of the copper-coated aluminum wire is ensured in terms of weight savings with the lowest possible contact resistance.

Also it has been found that the use of hose packages has been current-carrying lines, which are formed as strands, and whose individual wires contain aluminum, the requirements Use in arc welding and cutting torches fulfill.

invention Hose packs have the advantage of being better than hose packs are considerably lighter with copper cables and thus easier to handle become. Despite the increased required to transfer the necessary necessary aluminum volume is the total weight of hose packages, which are manufactured with aluminum strands, considerably less than the total weight of conventional hose packages.

With the hose package according to the invention is a long overcome existing prejudice of professionals who Aluminum cables due to their poorer conductor properties and because of their bending and breaking behavior not for have considered use in hose packages.

By Running the aluminum wire as a strand with relative fine individual wires is the bending and torsional load the single wires compared to a wire with larger Cross section smaller.

For The single wires have pure aluminum with the purities from A199 to A199.9 proved to be particularly suitable. Nevertheless, it is it is possible to use aluminum alloys.

advantageously, At least one composite line is provided, the individual wires made of copper-coated aluminum or an aluminum-containing one Alloy and single wires of copper or copper-containing Contains alloy. Surprisingly, it was found that such composite lines heat dissipation of the lines significantly improve the overall cost of the hose package still cheaper compared to pure copper wires are.

advantageously, has the line at least four individual strands, the one Core strand are beaten. Such a constructed line has a high flexibility, even with large cable cross-sections.

advantageously, Each individual strand and / or the core strand consists of at least 20 Individual wires. This increases the flexibility and reduces the risk of line breakage.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the individual wires a diameter of 0.05 mm to 0.5 mm. Particularly preferred a diameter of 0.15 mm. With such single wire diameters the necessary line parameters can be achieved.

advantageously, the lay length of the strands is from 15 mm to 200 mm, with 40 mm to 60 mm being particularly preferred. such Punch lengths improve the mechanical properties of the Hose package.

Advantageously, a plurality of current-carrying lines are arranged coaxially around a central channel. This allows the combination of several functions that the hose package has to fulfill, with a smaller number of individual hoses. It is thus also possible to achieve synergy effects, for example, if the central channel leads a cooling medium. Then the heat-emitting current-carrying line can simultaneously active with the Cooling medium to be cooled.

advantageously, At least one additional control power line is provided. This allows functions of the welding machine control easily by means of the handpiece.

Especially It is advantageous if at least two channels for the line a medium and at least two current-carrying lines are provided. As in the case described above brings the Combination of media line and live line positive effects regarding the efficiency of the power line. The Provide at least two channels with live Lines, the current-carrying lines also in the middle can be arranged and are flowed around directly from the medium can, increases the surface of the pipes and thus their heat dissipation. In addition, at constant flexibility of the cross-section of the lines climb. Overall, it is thus possible to transferable Increase the performance of the hose package.

Especially It is advantageous if a channel for guiding a welding wire is provided. This allows the welding wire in a base station of the welder in comparatively store large quantities and the welding wire is passed through the hose package to the handpiece as required.

advantageously, a channel is provided for the current-carrying line. Especially with a coaxial arrangement, it may be necessary its the individual functions that a hose has to fulfill, spatially separate, for example, because the live wire has a potential other than one potential Welding wire to be transported in the hose package it has.

Especially It is advantageous if all channels are coaxial are arranged. This allows the most efficient use of the existing space and makes it easier to handle Hose packages with a smaller diameter.

Surprisingly An arrangement has proven to be advantageous in which the channel with the current-carrying lines the channel to the line of Surrounding medium and / or the channel for conducting the medium the channel surrounds to guide the welding wire. So that can the media channel for cooling the welding wire channel serve and at the same time to cool the canal with the current-carrying line.

When suitable medium for the channels has a Polymer proved. Polymers can meet a wide variety of requirements meet and have proven themselves in continuous use.

Prefers the medium consists of a gas or a liquid. It may be the process gas, so in inert gas welding to the shielding gas or a liquid, for example for cooling the handpiece.

advantageously, The current-carrying line has a connection at one end on, by means of a crimp connection with the current-carrying Line is connected. Surprisingly, it has been shown that such crimping a permanently reliable and secure connection between live line and connect.

alternative or in addition it is also possible that one Welding of the live line with a Connection or a wire end sleeve by means of ultrasound. It has been shown that the copper-plated aluminum wires not only good over crimp connections with connections connect, but also by ultrasonic welding. In the latter case arise at the connection surfaces then virtually similar materials that are basically better to add.

Brief description of the drawings

Further Objectives, advantages, features and applications of the The present invention will become apparent from the following description of several Embodiment with reference to the drawings. Make up all described and / or illustrated features for itself or in any meaningful combination the subject of the present Invention, also independent of its summary in the claims or their relationship.

1 a cross section through an inventive hose package;

2 a cross section through an alternative embodiment of a hose package according to the invention;

3 an inventive embodiment of a so-called power-water cable;

4 a longitudinal section through an inventive power cable;

5 a cross section through the cable 4 along the line AA;

6 a perspective view of a stranded wire.

1 showed a schematic representation of a hose package according to the invention 1 , as used, for example, in arc welding or -schneidbrenner. The hose package 1 sums in the embodiment chosen here in an outer tube 2 several individual tubes together and leads them from a base, not shown, to a handpiece, also not shown, of the welder or from a base of an automated welder to an effector.

The hose package 1 has a coolant supply hose 3 in which a coolant from the base to the handpiece or effector is required inside. Furthermore, a process gas hose 4 provided within which the process gas flows to generate a protective gas atmosphere. In addition, a wire feed hose 5 provided, a welding wire 6 within one in the wire feed hose 5 provided wire feed spiral 7 transported. Furthermore, a control line 8th provided by means of which control signals are transmitted from the handpiece or the effector to the base.

Furthermore, a so-called power-water cable 9 intended. Inside a hose 10 the power-water cable 9 is a live line 11 provided, which will be described in more detail below. Between the hose 10 and the live line 11 is a channel 12 intended for the coolant return. This has the advantage that the coolant on the coolant return at the same time the current-carrying line 11 can cool, which heats up strongly due to the high welding performance required.

Inside the hose package 1 can be provided more lines.

2 shows a further embodiment of a hose package according to the invention 20 , This in 2 illustrated hose package 20 has a substantially coaxial arrangement of the individual elements. Inside the hose package 20 becomes a welding wire 21 inside a wire feed spiral 22 guided. The wire feed spiral 22 surrounding is a gap 23 provided, which serves to convey the process gas. For gas-tight sealing is a hose 24 intended. The hose 24 consists of an elastic polymer. On the hose 24 are live cables 25 on and in black illustrated control lines 26 , The live cables 25 have the inventive strand structure, the in 5 will be explained in more detail. The hose package is held together 20 from an outer tube surrounding all hoses 27 , outer tube 27 and hose 24 form between them an annular channel for the current-carrying lines 25 and the other lines. The hose package 20 may be part of a larger hose package in which further hoses are provided for different purposes, such as coolant hoses and the like.

3 shows the power water cable 9 out 1 in an enlarged view.

The power water cable 9 has an outer tube 30 which is waterproof to conduct the cooling medium. Instead of water, any other fluid known from the prior art can also be used as the cooling medium. In a concentric arrangement is located in the middle of the power-water cable 9 the live line 11 ,

The live line 11 is designed as a strand of single wires 32 consists. The single wires 32 the strand 11 consist of aluminum or an aluminum alloy. Pure aluminum with purities A199 to A199.9 has proved to be particularly suitable. These wires 32 are coated or coated with a copper layer, which significantly reduces the contact resistance. The thickness of the layer is between 1 and 100 microns.

The single wires 32 have a single wire diameter of 0.1 to 0.3 mm. In a strand are bundled in about thirty individual wires, with strands of up to 100 individual wires have been found to be suitable in terms of elastic properties. The cross section of such a strand is about 10 mm ² , whereas the known from the prior art copper strands have a cross section of, for example, 6 mm ² . In the case of aluminum, cross sections up to about 30 mm ^{2 are} conceivable without further ado. The lay length of the strands themselves is about 60 mm, but may be between 15 mm and 200 mm, depending on the strand cross section.

at so-called composite cables can also be copper-coated Individual wires made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy and single wires made of copper or a copper alloy be used in a stranded wire.

In a further embodiment, not shown, the current-carrying line 11 a plurality of strands, wherein a core strand is provided to the other strands 31 are beaten.

It is possible to have several of the in 3 provided power-water cables within a hose package. Particularly preferred are two power water cables have proven one of which is responsible for the coolant inlet and one for the coolant outlet. Thus, it is possible to divide the current-carrying lines, which on the one hand increases the flexibility of the hose package and on the other hand improves the cooling performance of the coolant on the current-carrying lines. Such arrangements are known in the art.

4 shows a longitudinal section through a power cable 40 with a connection 35 to a base of the welder. The connection 35 has a hex nut 36 for correctly connecting the power cable 40 to the base. Furthermore, a ferrule 37 and a ferrule 38 provided for receiving the end of the line 40 serve.

Furthermore, control lines 43 shown by means of separate plug 39 be connected to the base. The control lines 43 be in front of the end area of the power cord 40 from an outer shell 46 of the power cable 40 led out. Inside the tube 40 created by the crimp a hollow area 41 from the connection 35 to the opposite end of the pipe 40 which is completely sealed. The area 41 may be gas tight and / or liquid tight.

5 shows a cross section through the power cable along the section line AA according to 4 , of the power cable 40 which is inside the area 41 which is usable for conducting either a cooling medium or a process gas.

The inner area 41 is through a hose 42 sealed. On the outside of the hose 42 several lines are arranged with different functions. Dotted hatched are control lines 43 for controlling functions of the welder. Shown in shaded light are live cables 44 , which are also designed as strands. The areas 45 does not have any special function. The areas 45 can z. B. filled with a filler or with plastic ropes. The wires 43 . 44 and the areas 45 are with a hose 46 cast around.

The 6 shows a perspective view of the current-carrying line 11 from the 1 and 4 , The single wires 32 are around a core wire 47 beaten. Shown is a half blow. The lay length d, ie the length running in the direction of line, over which a single wire 32 once completely around the core line 47 is wound, is 60 mm. However, the lay length may vary from 20 mm to 120 mm, depending on the thickness of the pipe 11 and the thickness of the individual wires 32 , Such a running line 11 has the advantage that it is resilient in many ways. The administration 11 can be twisted in both directions, curved and also stretched or compressed. In addition, the elasticity of such a line is substantially higher than in a line made of solid material with the same cross-section.

1

hosepack

2

outer tube

3

Coolant supply hose

4

Process gas hose

5

Wire spiral conveyor

6

welding wire

7

Wire spiral conveyor

8th

control line

9

Electricity Water Cable

10

tube

11

current carrying management

12

channel

20

hosepack

21

welding wire

22

Wire spiral conveyor

23

channel

24

tube

25

braid

26

control line

27

outer tube

30

outer tube

32

individual wires

35

connection

36

Hex nut

37

end sleeve

38

ferrule

39

plug

40

power cable

41

Area

42

tube

43

control lines

44

current carrying cables

45

Area

46

tube

47

core wire

d

lay length

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list The documents listed by the applicant have been automated generated and is solely for better information recorded by the reader. The list is not part of the German Patent or utility model application. The DPMA takes over no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited patent literature

• - DE 1515145 A [0007]
• - DE 8509258 U1 [0008]

Claims (20)

Hose package of an arc welding or cutting torch with at least one current-carrying line ( 9 . 20 . 25 . 44 ), characterized in that the line ( 9 . 20 . 25 . 44 ) has an aluminum wire whose outer jacket is provided with a copper layer. Hose pack according to claim 1, characterized the copper layer has a thickness of 1 to 100 μm. Hose package according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the one line ( 9 . 20 . 25 . 44 ) at least one strand ( 11 . 25 . 44 ) whose individual wires ( 32 ) consist of copper-plated aluminum wires. Hose package according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the aluminum wire is made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy. Hose package according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one composite line ( 11 . 25 . 44 ), the individual wires ( 32 ) of copper-clad aluminum or an aluminum-containing alloy and single wires of copper or a copper-containing alloy. Hose package according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the current-carrying line ( 11 . 25 . 44 ) has at least four individual strands, which are beaten around a core strand. Hose package according to claim 6, characterized in that each individual strand ( 11 . 25 . 44 ) and / or the core strand of at least 20 individual wires ( 32 ) consists. Hose package according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the individual wires ( 32 ) have a diameter of 0.05 mm to 0.5 mm, preferably 0.15 mm. Hose package according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the lay length (d) of the strands ( 11 . 25 . 44 ) of 15 mm to 200 mm, preferably 40 mm to 60 mm. Hose pack according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a plurality of current-carrying lines ( 25 . 44 ) coaxially about a central channel ( 21 . 41 ) are arranged. Hose pack according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one additional control line ( 8th . 43 ) is provided. Hose package according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least two channels ( 3 . 4 . 12 ) for conducting a medium and at least two current-carrying lines ( 9 . 20 . 25 . 44 ) are provided. Hose package according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a channel ( 5 . 22 ) for guiding a welding wire ( 6 . 21 ) is provided. Hose pack according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a channel for the current-carrying line ( 25 . 44 ) is provided. Hose package according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that all channels are arranged coaxially. Hose pack according to claim 15, characterized in that the channel with the current-carrying lines ( 25 . 44 ) the channel ( 23 ) surrounds the medium and / or that the channel ( 23 ) for conducting the medium the channel ( 22 ) for guiding the welding wire ( 6 . 21 ) surrounds. Hose pack according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the channels ( 12 . 23 ) are separated by a polymer. Hose package according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the medium is a gas or a liquid is. Hose package according to one of claims 10 to 18, characterized in that the current-carrying line ( 9 . 20 . 25 . 40 . 44 ) at one end a connection ( 35 ), which by means of a crimp connection with the current-carrying line ( 9 . 20 . 25 . 40 . 44 ) connected is. Hose package according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a welding of the current-carrying line ( 9 . 20 . 25 . 44 ) with a connection ( 35 ) or a wire end ferrule ( 37 ) by means of ultrasound.