SEAM WELDER ASW
SEAM WELDING REFINED
AMET®’s seam welders are the culmination in the refinement of all the critical pieces of seam welding including controls, precision / reliable motion control, tabletop rigidity, and more. AMET’s Seam Welders are designed as a complete system for performing external and internal linear welds on a wide range of part sizes. Typically these parts are cylindrical or sheets, but other shapes such as conical can be accommodated. Each is equipped with our world-class controls and servo motor driven motion axes for precise control and consistent performance.
These seam welding machines, as with all our systems, are designed to provide ease of use, quality, robustness, high-precision, and repeatability. The main structure and base are constructed of thick wall steel tubing to maintain rigidity and extend service life. The carriage runs on precision ground rails with linear bearings.
Many weld processes, such as GTAW, PAW, GMAW, FCAW, and even multi process weld heads can be integrated into our seam welders.
Advantages
The AMET® External Linear Seam Welder has several benefits over welding the part manually or using a motorized carriage or “buggy” approach, including:
- The carriage motion is provided by a servo motor driven rack and pinion, which allows the seam welder to achieve consistent welds with an even bead.
- The precision motion of the carriage essentially makes positioning the torch over the centerline of the seam welder bed a one-time operation. A manually operated slide with a hand brake is included for cross-seam adjustment. Once the desired location is reached, the slide can be locked into place with the hand brake and should require very few future adjustments.
- Two manually controlled centering devices are included to ensure parts are loaded in the center of the bed, which helps maintain part uniformity and consistency.
- Ability to maintain part dimensional accuracy due to reduced distortion and weld shrinkage. The weld joint is held firmly in place over the entire length of the part, and the water-cooled mandrel dissipates heat from the weld zone.
- Quality issues related to tack welds are reduced or eliminated because the uniform clamping of the seam welder makes tacking parts unnecessary in most cases.
- Part loading and welding are relatively easy which reduces operator fatigue and involvement.
- The combination of these benefits greatly reduce the time to prepare a part for welding and the time to finish a part after welding. Rework time, part scrap, and consumables costs are reduced.
Standard Features
1. A travel carriage rides on four (4) precision linear rail bearing blocks and is driven by the pinion gear mounted to the carriage gearbox and servo motor. Home and travel limit switches are included, further enabling precise and repeatable welds. A cable tray and cable carrier is also included and provides a neat cabling package, as well as extending the life of the cabling and hoses running to the seam welder carriage and weld head.
2. The seam welding machines track is stress relieved prior to machining, which maintains tight tolerances and dimensional stability over the lifetime of the equipment. The track is outfitted with precision ground linear rails and a gear rack which provides smooth, repeatable motion resulting in superb welds.
3. A safety interlock switch is provided at the mandrel latch. The integration of this switch prevent the seam welding machines from clamping when the mandrel latch is in an open condition. It also prevents the seam welder from unclamping the part while the weld is in progress.
4. Double wall pneumatic hose provides uniform clamping force to each of the clamping fingers along the full length of the weld. A pressure regulator is provided to allow adjustment of the clamping force. The aluminum clamping fingers are fitted with copper fingertips that are reversible to double their service life. The copper fingertips provide excellent heat conduction and aid in chilling the weld zone during the weld. The seam welder’s fingertips may be replaced individually as needed.
5. The finger-to-finger distance between the front and back clamping fingers may be adjusted, thus allowing the fixture to be fine-tuned to the welding process and materials being welded. The fingers are adjustable from 3 to 40mm (0.11 to 1.57 in).
6. Two (2) manually retractable part alignment devices facilitate positioning of the weld joint along the centerline of the seam welder prior to clamping and welding. These alignment devices may be easily repositioned along the length of the seam welder bed, allowing them to be placed appropriately for parts of varying lengths.
7. A built-in storage area is included above the seam welder’s mainstay. Tools or consumables may be stored in this area, keeping them within easy reach and reducing down time.
8. The seam welder mainstay incorporates an accessible area that may be used for mounting the welding and motion controls, depending on the complexity of the Seam Welding Systems. Having this area available for housing control components helps reduce the number of items that may otherwise have been mounted to the weld head carriage.
9. AMET seam welding machines utilize heavy-duty, thick wall structural steel construction to minimize part distortion during clamping. The added mass also provides superior heat absorption and dissipation during the welding process, while at the same time increasing the rigidity and extending the equipment’s service life.
10. The adjustable height seamer mandrel accommodates materials of various thicknesses and is plumbed to accept water cooling to help draw heat out of the weld joint. The seamer mandrel is supplied with one (1) standard copper backup insert. The groove in the insert is machined to match the material type and thickness that is being welded, as specified by the client.
11. Foot-activated tape switches are used to operate the pneumatic clamping and unclamping of the seam welder fingers. A single tape switch is mounted to the back leg of the seam welder and controls the back clamping fingers, while dual tape switches are mounted to the front leg and control the front and back clamping fingers respectively.
