GB1262634A - Improved welding machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1,262,634. Welding by fusion. RICHARDSONS WESTGARTH & CO. Ltd. 5 Feb., 1969 [8 Feb., 1968], No. 6343/68. Heading B3R. A welding machine comprises an elongate probe-like arm 11a mounted for 'movement along its own axis, and a welding head 14 carried at one end of the arm, the head comprising a flat-sided member provided with guide means for engagement with the work to guide the arm during welding. The arm 11a, which is mounted so as to permit limited lateral movement thereof, is axially movable between rollers 10 by a rack-and-pinion mechanism. The carriage 12 supporting the arm is adjustable vertically on pillar 13 which may be angularly adjustable on base 25. The welding head 14 comprises a block assembly 16 provided with a cut-away 19 accommodating one or a pair of arcuate wire guide nozzles 26 which are replaceable. The nozzles diverge slightly downwardly. The block assembly 16 has front and rear guides 18, 17 and may also have a resilient top guide 23. The block assembly 16 is provided with cooling water passages, and apertures for feeding a shielding gas into the cut-away 19. Welding wires 21 may be driven by a single feeder supplied from separate insulated supply rolls 15. The block assembly 16 may be replaced by two separate blocks spring-loaded apart whereby two seams having limited divergence or convergence may be welded simultaneously, one wire being fed to each block. In use, the head is introduced into a hollow workpiece with a restricted entry, e.g. a box section, and the sides and bottom of the workpiece co-operate with the cut-away 19 to form a chamber which retains shielding gas adjacent the weld. Where a weld is to be made in, e.g. a deep Vee-groove, a single weld only being required, only one wire feed nozzle is provided the tip of which has opposed flats whereby the tip can be approached close to the work. Submerged-arc and M.I.G. welding are referred to, it being stated that in bigger machines a cored wire can be used in a flux-submerged process. Where twin arcs are used two power supplies with linked controls are provided.