The Versatility of Used Oxyacetylene Welding Robots

Oxy­acety­lene weld­ing, usu­al­ly referred to as gas weld­ing or oxy­fu­el weld­ing (OFW), is a process which depends on the com­bus­tion of oxy­gen and acety­lene. When assim­i­lat­ed in cor­rect pro­por­tions with­in a hand-held torch or blow­pipe, a fair­ly hot flame is fash­ioned with­in a tem­per­a­ture of about 5,792 degrees Fahren­heit. This hot flame con­se­quent­ly melts the met­al faces of the pieces to be weld­ed, caus­ing the molten met­al to flow between, com­bine, and form a con­tin­u­ous piece. 

The chem­i­cal com­bi­na­tion of the oxy­acety­lene flame can be adjust­ed by con­vert­ing the ratio of the vol­ume of oxy­gen to acety­lene. This helps to cre­ate three dis­tinc­tive flame set­tings are used: neu­tral, oxi­diz­ing, and car­bur­iz­ing. Weld­ing is gen­er­al­ly car­ried out using the neu­tral flame set­ting which has equal amounts of oxy­gen and acety­lene. The oxi­diz­ing flame is acquired by increas­ing just the oxy­gen flow rate while the car­bur­iz­ing flame is obtained by increas­ing acety­lene flow in cor­re­la­tion to oxy­gen flow. Steel melts at tem­per­a­tures above 2,732 degrees Fahren­heit, so the com­bi­na­tion of oxy­gen and acety­lene is used because it is the only gas blend with enough heat to weld steel. How­ev­er, oth­er gas­es such as propane, hydro­gen and coal gas can be used for join­ing low­er melt­ing point, non-fer­rous met­als, as well as for braz­ing and sil­ver soldering.

This shows just how ver­sa­tile the oxy-acety­lene process is as it can be used for a vari­ety of things, such as weld­ing met­als, a cut­ting torch, a braz­ing torch, or as a torch to heat met­als for bend­ing and form­ing. In addi­tion, oxy-acety­lene equip­ment can be used almost anywhere! 

Equip­ment

Oxy­acety­lene robot­ic equip­ment is con­ve­nient and easy to use. It encom­pass­es oxy­gen and acety­lene gas­es stored under pres­sure in steel cylin­ders. The cylin­ders are fixed with reg­u­la­tors and flex­i­ble hoses lead­ing to the blow­pipe. Specif­i­cal­ly designed safe­ty devices such as flame traps are flanked by the hoses and the cylin­der reg­u­la­tors. The flame trap averts flames gen­er­at­ed by a ​‘flash­back’ from reach­ing the cylin­ders; pri­ma­ry caus­es of flash­backs are the fail­ure to sluice the hoses and over­heat­ing of the blow­pipe nozzle.

Oper­at­ing Characteristics

The action of the oxy­acety­lene flame on the sur­face of the mate­r­i­al to be weld­ed can be attuned to pro­duce a soft, harsh or vio­lent effect by chang­ing the gas flows. There are prac­ti­cal lim­its as to the sort of flame which can be used for weld­ing. A harsh, force­ful flame will cause the molten weld pool to be blown away, but too soft a flame will not be steady near the point of appli­ca­tion. The blow­pipe is con­se­quent­ly designed to con­tain dif­fer­ent sizes of a swan neck cop­per noz­zle which per­mits the cor­rect amount of flame to be used. The con­nec­tion between mate­r­i­al thick­ness, blow­pipe noz­zle size and weld­ing speed, is imper­a­tive. The addi­tion of filler met­al in the form of a rod can be made when required when car­ry­ing out fusion weld­ing. The pri­ma­ry meth­ods employed in oxy­acety­lene weld­ing are left­ward, right­ward and all-posi­tion­al rightward.

The for­mer is used almost exclu­sive­ly and is idyl­li­cal­ly suit­ed for weld­ing butt, fil­let, and lap joints in sheet thick­ness­es up to approx­i­mate­ly 5mm. The right­ward tech­nique locates func­tion on plate thick­ness­es above 5mm for weld­ing in the flat and hor­i­zon­tal-ver­ti­cal posi­tion. The all-posi­tion­al right­ward method is a amend­ment of the right­ward tech­nique and is ide­al­ly suit­ed for weld­ing steel plate and in par­tic­u­lar pipework where posi­tion­al weld­ing, (ver­ti­cal and over­head) has to be imple­ment­ed. The right­ward and all- posi­tion­al right­ward tech­niques facil­i­tate a uni­form pen­e­tra­tion bead with added con­trol over the molten weld pool and weld metal. 

Advan­tages

The OFW process is ide­al for repair welds, thin sheets, tubes, or small diam­e­ter pipes. The process can help con­trol the rate of heat input, tem­per­a­ture of the weld zone, and oxi­diz­ing or reduc­ing poten­tial of the weld­ing atmos­phere. In addi­tion, the filler met­al is added sep­a­rate­ly to the weld­ing heat source, mak­ing it eas­i­er to con­trol the weld bead size, shape, and weld pud­dle viscosity.

Oxy­acety­lene Weld­ing Robot Options

Robots​.com sells a vari­ety of oxy­acety­lene weld­ing robots from mul­ti­ple brands. We also have both new and recon­di­tioned options avail­able to give great options for most budgets. 

Con­tact us at 877−762−6881 for more oxy­acety­lene weld­ing information.