Welding demonstrations held for BCSA members

Lincoln Electric recently held an open morning session for British Constructional Steelwork Association (BCSA) members to attend and learn about advances in welding processes.

Four different workstations were set up, including one with the company’s Linc-Cobot.

This is described as a collaborative robot, which allows an operator to work safely within the same work space as the Cobot’s arm will stop automatically if an obstacle is encountered.

The Linc-Cobot uses Lincoln Electric’s Power Wave R450 power source, which is said to allow welds to be made at industry leading travel speeds and with minimum spatter.

Advanced Submerged Arc Welding was demonstrated. At the heart of this process is the Power Wave AC/DC 1000 SD power source. This offers the advantage of using AC polarity in combination with long stickout, which is said to result in the highest possible deposition rates.

A new, stainless steel long stickout attachment can access deep, narrow groves, so that less weld metal needs to be deposited.

A third workstation had HyperFill; a new twin-wire MAG welding process, which the company said can take those involved in heavy fabrication to the next level of welding productivity. The welding system uses a single Power Wave S500 power source and wire feeder, but the 2 x 1.0mm solid steel wires pass through the same liner of a single welding torch and exit through a single contact tip.

The key to the process is a unique pulsed waveform, which forms a liquid bridge between the two wires and allows for very smooth droplet transfer.

Welding fume continues to be a hot topic for many steelwork fabricators and accordingly, Lincoln Electric took the time to cover this subject with a number of solutions, such as on-torch fume extraction and mobile units, as well as more advanced wall-mounted systems where fume removal can be made at multiple locations.