How to Avoid Errors with a Torch Cleaning Station

In automation, processes for joining metals are about plant availability, the reduction of technical and organizational downtime, and fast cycle times. For these points to not to be endangered in your company, the use of a torch cleaning station for automated MIG / MAG welding is indispensable. A torch cleaning station as a system component in the welding cell ensures that the functionality of the welding torch is maintained so that no process errors occur.

 What problems can occur without a torch cleaning station?

Weld spatter is frequently produced in MIG/MAG welding processes. Depending on the base material to be welded and the respective process parameters, there are different types of weld spatter. When welding galvanized sheets, for example, there are large particles that stick quickly to the consumable parts, especially the gas nozzle.

In aluminum welding, smoke is more likely to enter the gas nozzle interior. Therefore, the protective gas can no longer flow through the gas ports unhindered. Regardless of the nature of these particles, they interfere with the protective gas cover in the welding process, which results in porosity or bonding defects in the weld seam.

In the worst case, it may cause a short circuit and the gas nozzle or the welding torch are destroyed. The machined component must then be reworked or scrapped. The torch cleaning station can prevent this and maintain the functionality of the welding torch. 

How exactly does a torch cleaning station work?

A torch cleaning station from ABICOR BINZEL works according to the milling cutter principle. A reamer is selected which is designed precisely for the geometry of the welding torch and its wearing parts. This is mounted on a motor which rotates the reamer. While the head of the welding torch is firmly clamped in a clamping prism of the torch cleaning station, the rotating cutter is carried in a lifting movement in the gas nozzle interior, or in the torch head.

This cleans the torch head, where solid particles, mainly spatter, are released. At the same time compressed air can be blown through the welding torch. This compressed air is also called blow-off air because it serves to remove the loosened particles from the welding torch head.

In addition to milling out the gas nozzle interior, ABICOR BINZEL torch cleaning stations offer two additional options to optimize the maintenance of the welding torch. On the one hand, there is the automatic injection unit which wets the gas nozzle interior with an anti-spatter agent and thus reduces the spatter adhesion in the process.

On the other hand, there is the option of a pin-and-shear wire cutter that cuts the welding wire to a defined stick-out length. This increases the repeatability at the start of welding and creates good ignition properties.

What are the positive effects of using a torch cleaning station?

By using a torch cleaning station, cleaning the welding torch is an automated process. Maintenance and cleaning times can be reduced, which reduces downtime. In the plant, no safety circuit is interrupted and the cleaning cycle runs repeatedly in a defined manner.

The torch cleaning station thus helps to ensure a trouble-free welding process without unnecessary downtimes, broken welding torches or faulty components.

Would you like more information about products that ABICOR BINZEL offers in this area? Then visit our product pages about torch cleaning stations:

• Torch Cleaning Stations