How to Trouble Shoot a Robot Making Defective Welds

Robot Weld­ing defects are some­thing that man­u­fac­tur­ers want to try to avoid at all costs. When a robot­ic welder pro­duces defects dur­ing the weld­ing process, it can cut down on the integri­ty of the weld, which can take away from the qual­i­ty of the prod­uct. That is why it is impor­tant to under­stand how to trou­bleshoot your robot­ic sys­tem if you see weld­ing defects. 

Poros­i­ty is one of the most com­mon weld­ing defects. It can be caused by a shield­ing gas leak or a clogged weld­ing gun noz­zle. This can cause welds to be made from under­cut or cold roll mate­r­i­al, caus­ing defects in the weld. There are many dif­fer­ent steps you can run through to check for poros­i­ty issues and oth­er weld­ing defects in your robot­ic weld­ing system.

5 Steps to Check­ing Poros­i­ty Issues in Your Fanuc Weld­ing Robot

1. Check for Shield­ing Gas Leaks and Flow – When check­ing for a shield­ing gas leak, use soap bub­bles, and make sure all fit­tings are tight. The shield­ing gas flow should feel like it is com­ing out of the gun, but not enough to cause any tur­bu­lence or disruption. 
2. Check for Spat­ter – A weld­ing noz­zle can get bogged down with spat­ter over time. Remove the weld noz­zles from the robot sys­tem, inspect them, and clean any weld spat­ter before replac­ing them. 
3. Replace Weld­ing Tips and Lin­ers Reg­u­lar­ly – Weld­ing con­tact tips should be replaced dai­ly to ensure that the wire feed is smooth and con­sis­tent dur­ing each weld­ing cycle. Weld­ing lin­ers need to be replaced week­ly in shops that run three shifts per day. 
4. Check Weld­ing Wire – The weld­ing wire should feel strong as it exits the weld­ing gun. To pre­vent ​“bird nests”, a tan­gle of wire that halts the wire from being fed, flip the dri­ve roll and pull the wire back out of the gun. Then trim the tan­gled wire and re-thread it through the feed­er and back to the gun. 
5. Check Stick Out Height and Push Pull Angles – The typ­i­cal stick out height for a weld­ing robot, the dis­tance from the end of the weld­ing gun noz­zle and tip to the weld joint, is ⁵⁄₈ inch­es to ³⁄₄ inch­es. Ensure that the mea­sure­ment is cor­rect, and check all the push pull angles of the sys­tem. Steel usu­al­ly requires a drag angle of around 15 degrees, while alu­minum requires a 15 degree lead angle to burn of oxides with the arc. 

Once you have com­plet­ed all of these steps, you should be able to cor­rect the weld­ing defects, like poros­i­ty, and return to a strong, durable weld­ing appli­ca­tion that will be high qual­i­ty and consistent. 

For more infor­ma­tion about robot­ic weld­ing solu­tions, con­tact Robots​.com today online or at 877−762−6881.