Smartweld

The Smartweld suite of devices have been developed to provide accurate data records whilst monitoring the installation of aluminothermic welds.

The Thermit Smartweld Innovation project.

It is generally acknowledged that the weakness of most aluminothermic welding processes is the application and control of the oxy/gas preheating procedure. All processes rely on the skill of the welder in aligning the preheating appliance, manually adjusting gas pressures to produce the correct preheating condition, and timing the duration of the preheat. Welds rejected on inspection due to faults linked to incorrect preheating  are believed  to cost the industry in excess of 1 million pounds per year, and so innovation  has been introduced to alleviate the problem by looking at three key factors that control preheat – the pressure gauges, the stopwatch, - and the welder.

In 2009 Thermit Welding (GB) ltd commenced its Smartweld Innovation project which aims to introduce a new range of products specifically focussed on improving the Thermit welding processes. A development programme commenced with BOC laboratories to analyse the preheating parameters and determine the variability to enable working tolerances to be developed. The objective of the project was to determine how accurately the actual operating conditions have to be controlled or measured, and to assess the reliability of the equipment  used for measuring them.

The first of these Smartweld products is the Smartweld Control which was launched at the Innotrans Exhibition in Berlin last month.

The Smartweld Control is a robust solid state device  designed to be fitted to the gas supply hoses . It  provides the welder with the required welding  procedure,  displays and monitors preheating parameters and records key welding conditions  for quality assurance records.

The welder is able to select the appropriate procedure from a simple menu, and the required preheating conditions are displayed, and recorded throughout the welding process. If any of the measured conditions run out of tolerance the device emits a visual and audible alarm.

In addition to selecting and monitoring the preheating and welding process, the device has additional functions which provide key information to the track engineer, or quality manager.

The identification of the welder, name, sentinel card no, company and welding skills -  is input though an i-button which is used to access and use the control unit. The, date, time and location of the weld  is provided by means of a built in GPS receiver and a barcode reader is used to input  consumable ( portion) information.  All the data is recorded on an internal memory with essential data recorded during the welding process – ambient temperature, preheating conditions, (gas pressure, gas temperature, preheating time). Portion tapping time is currently input manually.

The i-button access is also used to allow authorised  users  to download the weld data  or upload new process parameters via a USB link to a PC.  The windows based software provided with the unit is used to input process parameters, programme the I-buttons, and download the weld data to produce weld installation reports, or export into Exel, The Smartweld Control can store records for up to 2000 welds, before its memory is full. The battery condition is displayed and the unit should operate for  over 8 hours  before recharging. The controls are all back lit for night use.

It is clear that the unit is monitoring the performance of the welder as much as that of the preheating process,  and as such could be seen by some to be somewhat intrusive, however considerable effort is made by the process suppliers to ensure the  welding consumables are manufactured to precise  standards, and this has to extend into the way they are used in the workplace, if optimum performance of the total process is to be achieved – therefore the introduction of  robust, reliable and accurate  equipment coupled full process traceability should be seen as a major contribution to improved weld quality control.  The cost of the unit will be less than the cost of replacing a rejected weld,  so if it prevents a single defective weld from being installed it will have more than paid for itself.

The prototype unit, which was designed and built in the UK, is now undergoing field trials and is expected to be available for general use by the end of the year. By assisting the welder with setting up and control of the preheating process, preheating faults should be significantly reduced.

For further information please contact Richard Johnson or Ian Banton on 01332 3660104

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