GB991385A - Apparatus for automatic welding of pipe joints - Google Patents

Abstract

991,385. Welding by fusion. CROSE-UNITED CORPORATION, and H. C. PRICE CO. May 24, 1963 [July 18, 1962; March 22, 1963], No. 20932/63. Heading B3R. In arc welding apparatus for joining pipe sections endto-end, a welding head oscillatable transversely of the seam is moved around the sections by a carrier guided by a track positioned on one of the sections. The track 22 is formed of two arcuate parts hinged together at one end and detachably coupled by a tensioning device at the other. The carrier 20 has two bevelled wheels 82 engaging a groove in the track 22 secured on one pipe section 24 and two wheels 88 running on the other pipe section. A chain 70 passing round the pipe section 24 passes over two pinions on the carrier 20, one pinion being mounted on a bell-crank 146 actuatable to tension the chain 70 and the other being rotated by a variable speed motor 28 to drive the carrier round the sections under the chain 70. A welding head 48, Fig. 6, to which is fed carbon dioxide and welding current through connections 104, 110, respectively, is supplied with wire from a reel 36 and is pivotally mounted in a sleeve 134 rotatable by a worm 136 in a block 46. A support 52 mounted on the carrier so as to be adjustable radially of the pipe sections supports the block 46 which is adjustable axially of the pipe sections. The welding head 48 is oscillated in a plane adjustable by the worm 136 by a link 124 reciprocated by a variable eccentric driven by a variable speed motor 38 on the carrier 20. The welding zone is surrounded by an enclosure 44 on the carrier 20 having an asbestos skirt engaging the pipe sections.