Orbital welding produces high quality and consistent welds, and is widely used around the world. Below are the main reasons why our customers prefer orbital welding for their in-house production and/or field installation:
1. It’s Clean & Pure
High purity tube welding is typically performed using a closed weld head for maximum results. In an enclosed environment, the tube is pre-flushed (pre-purging) and filled with shielding gas (usually Argon 99.999% purity) to ensure it can be welded in a high-purity, contaminant-free environment. With proper shielding gas purity and purging duration, the orbital weld joint produced is clean – free from oxidation and heavy discoloration. It does not require extensive post-weld polishing and cleaning, making it a method of choice in cleanroom welding work.
2. It’s Efficient & Seamless
The entire welding operation from generating weld program, weld execution to weld monitoring is easy and efficient. Weld program can be auto-generated using advance auto-programming function within a minute with a simple entry of 4 welding parameters ~ tube material, tube OD, tube wall thickness and welding gas type. Work piece can be easily and securely clamped onto the weld-head with an efficient fixtures (collet) system. It takes less than a minute to complete the weld for 1” OD tubing. Each weld process is monitored by the computer and weld data is automatically saved in the weld-log local folder system or remote PC, or be printed out by an onboard printer.
3. It’s More Productive
Orbital welding typically increases the arc time by 30%, and makes 24×7 production welding possible. Orbital welding allows much more productive use of labor, as the machine does most of the work. Though there are upfront cost to acquire the appropriate equipment, it cuts down on labor requirements and project lead time in the long run. An orbital welding system outperform manual welders many times over, self-paying for the cost of the orbital equipment in a single job. The new orbital welding system180SW comes with industry 4.0 feature – IoT to allows 24×7 remote monitoring of welding productivity.
4. It’s Safe
Orbital welding is very safe to operate. It has many build-in features to avoid hazards posed to both operator and machine. The machine will auto-detect the weld-head connected and define the weld parameters range to avoid the operator from entering the wrong weld parameters, such as tube diameter, arc current or speed. The system is also capable to detect and measure the flow of shielding gas and coolant and abort the weld to prevent damage to weld or the weld head. Serious injury to orbital welding operator is also avoided with advance rotor torque control safety feature.
5. It Produces Better Quality Welds
Orbital welder consistently outperforms manual welder in terms of weld precision and quality. An orbital welding technician requires minimal training hours to be a certified to use the equipment and produce a high-quality weld. In comparison, manual welder requires extensive skill training and many hours of practices to achieve the same level of weld quality.
6. It Produces Consistent Welds
Orbital welder not only produces more welds per hour than manual welder, it always produces more consistent and repeatable weld quality. This is because in orbital welding the weld process is controlled mechanically, whereby torch speed, arc gap, weld current, pulse width and pulse frequency are kept consistent throughout 3600 rotation. Also, orbital welding equipment allows user to set and save the specific welding program, allowing the system to repeat the exact same welds over and over again, without error. With manual welding, by nature there is always some level of human variability and inconsistency between welds.
7. It Doesn’t Require Certification
With a considerable shortage of certified welders in the field today, it can be difficult to find manual welders with the necessary certifications and expertise to perform manual welding operations. Orbital welding, however, doesn’t require experienced & skilled welder or welder with certification, as the equipment can be operated by a trained technician as operator. OrbiTechnik provides experience instructor to train and qualify your general skill technician as orbital welding operator.
8. It Solves Unique Welding Situations
Orbital welding is great for unique situations where it is not feasible to rotate a piece of tubing or pipe to be welded. It is also particularly useful in tight space welding work where manual welding is not possible, harsh environmental conditions, lack of visibility, or presence of radiation. In this case, once the weld head is positioned properly, the weld can be carried out from a remote control a safe distance. Learn more in article Orbital Welding in Demanding Weld Positions for Pipes & Tube Installation
9. It Shortens Lead Time for Large Projects
When multiple identical welds are being performed by orbital welding, you can test a sample weld (weld coupon), rather than having to test every single weld as required in manual welding. Some tests like radiographic inspection, boroscopic inspection and pressure test can be expensive and time consuming. Since the machine is repeating the weld automatically, the integrity of the sample weld should hold true for all of the welds thereafter, eliminating the needs for 100% test requirement.
10. Improve Project Bottom Line
For smaller welding projects or projects where refined and precise welding is not required, manual welding serves its purpose. However, in the case of larger projects where multiple and identical high-quality welds are required, orbital welding can save a significant amount of welding time, reducing weld reworks and improves manpower utilization. The result is lower overhead costs, higher quality welds, and shorter lead times.
11. Reduce Argon Gas Consumption
Argon Gas is one of the significant cost elements in high purity welding for a semiconductor piping project. Selecting the right orbital welding system could reduce your argon gas usage and improves your bottom line. The Orbitalum 180SW system comes with “Welding Gas Management” function to allow the user to optimized argon gas usage by defining “just sufficient” gas flow rate and flow duration required for each welding cycles i.e., pre-purge, welding, post-purge welding and standby. This function is much more efficient than a traditional orbital welding system with “manual and fixed flow” set up, allowing up to 70% gas saving for similar welding process.
12. Traceability – Quality Control
Orbital welding equipment is capable to auto-generate a weld procedure based on tube material, tube OD, tube wall thickness, and welding gas used. The tested and qualified weld procedures is then saved in the system to be used subsequent welding jobs. During the weld, the system’s sophisticated data acquisition systems operate in the background and automatically perform real-time monitoring of the weld parameters. Once the welding cycle is completed, the weld data is automatically saved or printed out as weld record. An orbital welding system can also be LAN connected to a remote PC as for integrated weld quality management. Orbitalum 180SW is the only orbital welding system that allows for efficient and seamless welds data management in the market today
13. Digitalized your Entire Welding Operation
New generation orbital welding system enables welding operations to be integrated into your centralized data management system both locally or globally via LAN network. Weld programs generated from one machine can be saved and uploaded to centralized data system, folder managed and backed up. Orbital welding system in other locations which are integrated into the network can access the centralized data base concurrently 24×7. This ensures that all your orbital welding system is updated with most updated weld program version. The same function could apply to manage weld data or weld log information for quality management purpose. For more information, refer to Orbitalum new generation power supply 180SW
You made a good point that the quality of the welds should also be considered when planning to use orbital welding equipment. I might opt for something like that because I’m in the process of planning the construction of a barn beside my home. I think that proper welding will ensure durability of such a structure.