A-Round the Edge - Orbital Welding

Orbital weld­ing is a spe­cial­ized weld­ing process where round­ed objects, like pipes, are weld­ed in a cir­cu­lar fash­ion around their cir­cum­fer­ence, usu­al­ly using tung­sten inert gas (TIG) weld­ing. The need for a con­sis­tent weld around the entire cir­cum­fer­ence of a cir­cu­lar part requires extreme­ly accu­rate weld­ing. This need for a high lev­el of pre­ci­sion makes orbital weld­ing an ide­al appli­ca­tion for robots.

Sev­er­al robot­ic orbital weld­ing tools are avail­able today. Some are portable clamp-like devices that are affixed to what­ev­er cir­cu­lar mate­r­i­al needs to be weld­ed. Oth­er, more per­ma­nent, orbital welders are installed on fac­to­ry floors and the pieces to be weld­ed move past them. Once the robot is put in con­tact with the prod­uct, it begins weld­ing while rotat­ing along the entire cir­cum­fer­ence of the cir­cu­lar object. This pro­duces a con­sis­tent weld as it ​“orbits” around a pre­cise path. This type of weld would be dif­fi­cult and time con­sum­ing for a human. 

If two cir­cu­lar pieces are to be weld­ed togeth­er, the edges of the two sur­faces often need to be cut at an angle, or beveled, to assure a con­sis­tent weld. The bevel­ing process is one that spe­cial­ized orbital weld­ing robots can per­form con­sis­tent­ly with a high lev­el of accuracy.

Spe­cif­ic appli­ca­tions for robot­ic orbital weld­ing include jobs build­ing water and pow­er plants where high strength pipe and elec­tri­cal con­duits need to be joined with high-qual­i­ty and high-pre­ci­sion welds. Human weld­ing in these appli­ca­tions would be too time con­sum­ing, expen­sive, and prone to poten­tial­ly dan­ger­ous imper­fec­tions. Often times, com­pact robot­ic orbital welders are the only option to weld hard-to-reach places on com­plex pip­ing or elec­tri­cal applications.

If you are inter­est­ed in orbital weld­ing robots, con­tact Robots​.com to help you decide which weld­ing robot is right for your process at 877−762−6881.