ABIBLOG USA: ABICOR BINZEL's Welding Blog

The robotic fume extraction landscape has featured few lean, advanced, and cost-effective solutions for manufacturers. While fume extraction for manual welding has experienced a significant spike in new solutions entering the market – from high-vacuum systems to multi-gun units, to countless new fume extraction gun concepts – robotics has remained ignored and mostly unchanged with minimal innovation to speak of.

Even if you are already convinced of the advantages of a torch cleaning station, there are still some important things to consider before you buy. With the right choice of torch cleaning station, you can optimize your welding process without welding spatter being an issue.

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.

When it comes to weld cell issues, oftentimes it is the simple things that are affecting its performance. Being able to know the basics and go through the basics will usually solve the vast majority of your robotic torch performance problems.

Robotic welding torches with integrated wire brake are designed for use in robotic welding applications utilizing the weld wire to touch sense weldment parts (i.e. check for part placement and/or fit up).

Robotic welding torches can streamline the welding process and make it a more reliable and faster production. But robotic welding cells and the torch itself is only as good as what you surround it with. Beyond talented personnel, there are tools every welding robot and robotic torch could use to make automated welding a more effective and efficient process.

So what does a robotic torch cost? You probably browse some of the welding equipment supplier websites and never see a price on those sites (ours included!), but then go to a welding distributor website or browse through their catalogs and get the List price from them. How do you know what you're paying for?

When it comes to robotic MIG welding you often have to ask the question about whether you should go air-cooled or water-cooled. It's always good to have the right tool in the right place for both optimal performance and cost. Looking at water-cooled versus air cooled, there are obvious cases where you would choose one over the other.

When you think of welding automation, cable assemblies are probably not the highest priority when evaluating options. But you may be overlooking a critical part of the torch as you go through all the different robot torch options out there. Without question, the quality of your cable assembly plays a key role in maximizing the efficiency of your automated welding processes.

When choosing a through-arm torch or an over-arm torch, one should know the advantages, disadvantages, and the compatibility of each. And you might be surprised about which orientation is best for you, and what mount might be best for you depending on your process.