Hello World

[Phil Wainwright]

Hi Guys and Gals,

Just to say hello and introduce myself. I make orbital welding equipment for the oil/gas and water pipeline industry; although the kit is suitable for various applications.

I am a design engineer by trade, and look forward to chatting to you all over the coming months

Also HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone, their families and friends

 

[the snooper]

hi phil welcome to the forum
sounds an interesting job get ready for questions

 

[Phil Wainwright]

Thank you

Thanks for the welcome.... If I can be of any help, just let me know.... (especially in large diameter pipe!) but I may have a few questions of my own!!

Nice to be a member

 

[the snooper]

ask away youll probably get more answers then you know what to do with

 

[malcolm]

I like the pictures in your album - would be great if you could start a thread to tell us a bit about the welder. Looks a lot of fun.

 

[Phil Wainwright]

MOD, Please help?

Can I say more about Firefly.... not as advertising, just to answer questions.....

A bit of a ramble would be nice if I am allowed

Just thought I would ask first.....

 

[malcolm]

Go for it - It would be interesting to hear more about it.

 

[Phil Wainwright]

Firefly, or as otherwise known, My Baby

Thank you Malcolm, I did not want to break rules on my first day and be thought of as advertising.

The Machines we make are designed for the oil/gas and water industries primarily, as a system for welding large diameter pipe (anything from 8" (200mm) upwards.

Firefly is designed to run on a band which is fitted round the pipe to be welded (or flat track for fabrication and shipyard applications for example)

The system can perform FCAW GMAW GTAW processes (obviously with a torch change for the GTAW)

It runs with a variety of inverter systems either by very simple arc trigger functions (re-creating the trigger pull of a torch) to more complex analogue control of weld modes and parameters to full-blown integration with digital communication systems such as Lincoln ArcLink

It can open root using a mig process, hot-pass either vertical up or down flux-core or hotpass GMAW with a suitable inverter. Then convention on a v-bevel would be a flux-core fill and cap or if we are looking a J-Prep, then usually stay with GMAW processes.....

The system is rather flexible and has a range of options such as automatic torch height adjustment, automatic seam tracking, wifi link capability, on-line diagnostics and I better draw breath

It is designed to be the most simple, yet flexible system available and its accuracy on travel speed, wire feed speed, oscillation width and speed is down to 3 decimal places....

Weld data logging allows for a huge amount of data to be filtered and saved ensuring that QMS (Quality Management Systems are kept up-to date) it can even pick up the current deviations that show that an error has occurred and stop the weld process while it is still a minimum amount of work. Imagine the upset on a multi-pass weld when NDT shows an error in the root-pass

Firefly has a very good chance of alerting you to an issue before subsequent passes......

Through custom programming, it could even work out how long your arc-on time is going to be, and turn on a relay.... this could be used for many reasons.... to turn on an indicator to alert the inspector.... or even ensure that the kettle has just finished boiling when you extinguish the arc

Anyhow, sorry to ramble on, but I do have a kind of one-track mind..... but if anyone has any questions, I would be pleased to answer them.....

 

[Ian D]

Hi there, very intresting, i learn so much from these forums.

 

[Shox Dr]

Welcome Phil sounds like interesting stuff. Is that Crosshills, Keighley?

 

[mike os]

hi Phil

looks like a nice bit of kit...... way out of my league, but a nice bit of kit none the less

your own business?

 

[Phil Wainwright]

Thank you for the nice comments, and yes it is Crosshills near Keighley to answer the other post.......

 

[Robotstar5]

Welcome to the forums, have you ever seen one of these pipewelders?

 

[Phil Wainwright]

Is that a CRC evans internal welder/line up clamp? or based on one?

I know the CRC has 6 (head?) three for each side, internal v on the root face?

They are big beasties

 

[Robotstar5]

It was built by my old boss (designed by a relative) the company was schwiesstechnik? based in Wolverhampton.

 

[Phil Wainwright]

Ah.... would that be Cloos schwiesstechnik?

I know them very well.... They make the most wonderful inverters and robotic systems......

BTW, sorry I am a bit of a teccy (did not mean to ignore you), so thank you for your welcome, and it is nice to speak to you.

I am guessing that is 36inch clamp? maybe wrong, tis always difficult to pick up perspective from a photo......

 

[Robotstar5]

Ah.... would that be Cloos schwiesstechnik?

No not the robot folks, it would have been schwiesstechnik UK or maybe Pipe-O-Tronic?, it was about 20 years ago and I left about 5 years ago. His company was just building robot welding equipment when I left.

 

[Phil Wainwright]

Hmmm, not a name I know off the top of my head......

Nice bit of kit though.....

I will research it and maybe give them a bell if I can find them......

Possibly worth a chat

Anyhow, I am logging off for the night, and will drop a post when I have some news.....

(also I will keep you all updated on the next few products that are coming out soon)