Welding Torch Cleaning Station

Automat­ing your weld­ing process will help to increase your prod­uct through­put and bring an over­all greater effi­cien­cy to your pro­duc­tion line. Many man­u­fac­tur­ers can keep their weld­ing noz­zles clean and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty max­i­mized by inte­grat­ing a torch clean­ing sta­tion also known as a ream­er. Ream­ers help to improve the over­all effi­cien­cy by help­ing to min­i­mize spat­ter and debris in the noz­zle. As with any mechan­i­cal sys­tem, prop­er main­te­nance and upkeep is impor­tant to keep the auto­mat­ed weld­ing process stream­lined; here we sug­gest the many ben­e­fits of a torch clean­ing sta­tion and some main­te­nance tips for even greater suc­cess on your pro­duc­tion line.

Ben­e­fits:

A torch clean­ing sta­tion will decrease spat­ter and debris, reduce down­time for main­te­nance, and pro­long con­sum­ables life when used and installed prop­er­ly. It will keep your robot­ic weld­ing cell pro­duc­tive and improve the weld qual­i­ty on your pro­duc­tion line by remov­ing accu­mu­lat­ing spat­ter from inside the gas met­al arc weld­ing gun’s front-end consumables.

By remov­ing the spat­ter often, a ream­er can help to pre­vent the loss of shield­ing gas and ensure a smooth cov­er­age to pro­tect the weld pool

It can also reduce the risk of spat­ter lodg­ing between the con­tact tip or retain­ing head and the noz­zle; both of which could result in arc­ing against the part.

Man­u­al­ly, it would take five+ min­utes to clean a torch noz­zle; a ream­er can con­duct the job in a mat­ter of seconds. 

Instal­la­tion Tips: 

As always, be sure to fol­low the man­u­fac­tur­ers guide for spe­cif­ic instal­la­tion direc­tions and tips. How­ev­er, here are a few brief guide­lines to fol­low along­side the man­u­fac­tur­ers guide.

• The over­all goal is to have the cut­ter blade reach the gas holes with­out rub­bing against them.
• The noz­zle should sit tan­gent on the two angled faces of the appro­pri­ate sized V‑block.
• There should be four points of con­tact: two faces on the V‑block and two faces on the ream­er clamp.
• As long as the posi­tion doesn’t increase debris col­lec­tion in the clamp hous­ing, a ream­er can be mount­ed in just about any position.
• It is impor­tant to make note of the base plate posi­tion and the anti­spat­ter sprayer to ensure the spray reser­voir will not leak when full.
• A mul­ti­feed sys­tem elim­i­nates the need for a sprayer reser­voir as the feed­ing of anti­spat­ter com­pound to mul­ti­ple ream­ers from a sin­gle drum placed on the floor or a shelf.

Size con­sid­er­a­tions:

The V‑block inside the top of the ream­er needs to be the cor­rect size for the spe­cif­ic noz­zle. If you use the incor­rect size for the noz­zle, the ream­er will be off-cen­ter and the cut­ter will crash into the noz­zle. The cut­ter blade is the cor­rect size for the noz­zle bore and the inser­tion depth of the noz­zle to the ream­er is 

Addi­tion­al Options: 

Anti-spat­ter com­pound can be sprayed along­side the reamer’s work. The manufacturer’s chart should be fol­lowed for prop­er set­up. How­ev­er, keep in mind that if the sprayer is too far, it won’t pro­vide ade­quate cov­er­age; too close may cause over-sat­u­ra­tion. The spray time also need not exceed more than a half-second.

Sug­gest­ed Fre­quen­cy of Cleaning: 

The part and the appli­ca­tion will deter­mine the ream fre­quen­cy that is nec­es­sary for ulti­mate pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. If your line is ream­ing too often, then it will decrease pro­duc­tion time; not soon enough will cause heavy spat­ter to build up. Spend­ing some time observ­ing your oper­a­tion and then mak­ing the appro­pri­ate adjust­ments will help to get the tim­ing just right. 

The Home Signal: 

The home sig­nal will drop off when the start sig­nal clos­es the clamps and rais­es the spin­dle. When the cycle is com­plete, the clamps will then open and the home sig­nal returns. Keep­ing a watch on the reamer’s home sig­nal reduces issues and guess­work dur­ing the clean­ing cycle. If the gun moves away too ear­ly, the ream­er can pull the noz­zle off the gun; con­fig­ur­ing the cor­rect tim­ing is important.

Two Types of Ream­er Options:

• Ana­log- Have a mul­ti­con­duc­tor cord set and air sup­ply. Each con­duc­tor­re­lays a spe­cif­ic task sig­nal­ing the sys­tem to start, spray, and return to home.
• Dig­i­tal- Use a net­work cable to send com­mands to an IP address. Dig­i­tal ream­ers can con­trol all of the func­tions that make up a ream cycle: start, spray, clamp, lift, low­er, and turn the motor on and off. Anoth­er ben­e­fit of a dig­i­tal ream­er is the abil­i­ty for remote mon­i­tor­ing and the abil­i­ty to track the sta­tus of each func­tion to deter­mine where the prob­lem lies. Dig­i­tal ream­ers use a net­work cable to send com­mands to an IP address. They can con­trol indi­vid­ual func­tions with­out being lim­it­ed to the num­ber of leads in the cord set, as an ana­log ream­er is. Beyond being told to start and spray, a dig­i­tal ream­er also can be told to clamp, lift, low­er, and turn the motor on and off — all of the func­tions that make up a ream cycle.

Pre­ven­ta­tive Maintenance: 

1. Inspect­ing the unit on a reg­u­lar basis will help keep it run­ning for decades.
2. Clean the V‑block and jaws of debris (buildup can push the noz­zle out of position).
3. Keep all clamp faces clean by scrap­ing them on the V‑block to remove debris.
4. Clean the top seal on the spin­dle under the cut­ter (excess can score the shaft on the spindle).

Ream­ers Boost Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty; Con­tact Robots​.com Today

When con­sid­er­ing robot­ic weld­ing, a noz­zle cleaned by a ream­er will help pro­duce a bet­ter weld qual­i­ty and reduce future prob­lems that could be cost­ly. A torch clean­ing sta­tion will make your robot­ic weld­ing process much more pro­duc­tive. To inte­grate a torch weld­ing sta­tion on your pro­duc­tion line, con­tact Robots​.com rep­re­sen­ta­tives online or at 877−762−6881.