Mig pulse with Lincoln 455 and ABB 2400

[Brian74]

Hello, I am an experienced robotic programmer/mig welder of 12 years who is new to this site. My experience has mostly been with spray transfer and now I am experimenting with welding vertical up with pulse. I have an abb 2400 set up to weld in pulse mode with 0.45 wire and 90/10 gas. The material that I am welding is 3/8 to 1/2 inch mild steel plate that is shot blasted.
I experimented with the parameters and gun angles on test material and was getting good resultes but I then tried it on the product and the welds were very inconsistant. Under cut and excessive amount of throat in the weld. Sometimes the weld will start out ok with a nice sound and then It starts to get this loud crackle and pop. When that starts to happen it seems as though the robot has a difficult time recovering and it's all down hill from there. Does anyone have any advise?

 

[matt1978]

Pulse welding is generally too fluid for welding vertically, especially without any torch manipulation. Have you tried with a higher percentage Co2? Maybe 15% or 18%. This would help make weldpool a little more controllable in position.

The loud crackle and pop sounds like when the weld starts to fall down, thats the noise of the wire hitting the weldpool.

Is this a T-Fillet?

 

[Brian74]

I have not tried using a different percentage of CO2 yet. That sounds like is something that I will have to try.

 

[Brian74]

Yes, it is a T-fillet at about a 10 deg angle.

 

[Robotstar5]

Have you got good integration between the ABB & Lincoln?, unless it's for basic single parameter welding (when you can use anything) I've always used ESAB welders with ABB as it's part of the same company the robot control / feedback on the welder is excellant.

 

[Brian74]

Yes, the intergration between the ABB and Lincoln are good. Our system was installed by Wolf Robotics and that is what they specialize in so our system was designed to use with or with out pulse.

 

[Sparkey]

Wow interesting!
Can you program the ABB so that it makes the famous "christmas tree" weave? or do you have to keep the torch steady?
Very interesting this...if i find the time i will try it out manually with my pulsed oerlikon at work....what angle is it again and what settings do you use? 1/2 inch.....uhm how much was that in cm again....
Just to try it out and see what happens...

 

[Robotstar5]

Can you program the ABB so that it makes the famous "christmas tree" weave? or do you have to keep the torch steady?

Not sure how the latest generation perform, but on older versions you program the weave amplitude / pattern seperately then "overlay" it onto the linear movement.
It's best to use the wrist axes for the weave as I've seen base axis motors burnt out by poor programming!

 

[Brian74]

I use is either a basket or a V weave at a tourch angle of zero to 5 deg. Im sure that If I adgusted the weave data that I could come close to the x-mas tree weave but I have not tried it yet. The robot uses through arc tracking to keep track of the joint so it has to weave. I have found that the robot tracks the best when using all axis when weaving. Using wrist only causes poor joint tracking. Travel speed of 1.7, Trim at 1.13 , wire speed at 138 to 139 mm/sec, current at 99. I use this data to for welding a piece of 3/16 to a 1/2 inch thick plate.

 

[Sparkey]

Yes, travelspeed is important when welding in pulse mode....if you go too fast you will end up blobbering all over the place too!

 

[Brian74]

Thanks, I'll have to try turning my travel speed down today. I have been very frustrated with the problems that I have been having with welding with pulse. One week things run good then the next week it's all bad. I have decent weld and weave data for welding the 3/16 to 1/2 inch material but when I try welding the 5/16 to 1/2 inch material is when I get the weld blobbers up. I have noticed that pulse is very sensitive to any changes that are made to the parameters. I will take some pictures and post them also.

 

[Sparkey]

Thanks, I'll have to try turning my travel speed down today. I have been very frustrated with the problems that I have been having with welding with pulse. One week things run good then the next week it's all bad. I have decent weld and weave data for welding the 3/16 to 1/2 inch material but when I try welding the 5/16 to 1/2 inch material is when I get the weld blobbers up. I have noticed that pulse is very sensitive to any changes that are made to the parameters. I will take some pictures and post them also.

Yes, that's true, you have to have the settings just right! i've noticed that when welding in pulse manually...when your travelspeed is a little bit off you hear and see it immediately! (you can even feel it in your torch hand...but offcourse the robot doesn't...)
Any pics would be great! i could show them to our plant's robot programmer... our robots are always set on pulse synergetic....who knows?

 

[Brian74]

I tried turning the travel speed down and adjusted the weave data on the welds for the 5/16 and 1/2 inch material. What a difference it made! No more crackle and pop and now I can get something done. Thanks to everyone for their help. I posted some picts in my album and I will post some more in a few days.

 

[Sparkey]

Nice one!! glad we could help!
Can't wait to see the pics!