Manually operated welding wire feeder

Details Manually operated welding wire feeder Manually operated welding wire feeder

1999-09-15

2001-04-10

Shaw, Clifford C. (Department: 1725)

Metal fusion bonding

Including means to apply flux or filler to work or applicator

Solid flux or solid filler

C219S137200

Reexamination Certificate

active

06213375

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to welding wire feeder apparatus and, more particularly, to a hand held and hand operated welding wire feed apparatus which simplifies and reduces the dexterous hand requirements for holding and manipulating the filler wire during a welding procedure.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For manually applied Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW), which is the most widely selected welding process for aerospace related hardware, the filler metal is added into the molten weld pool in the form of wire which may be any of a variety of diameters from as small as {fraction (1/64)}″ to as large as {fraction (3/16)}″. Adding the wire is performed by the welder manually with one hand while the welding torch (arc heat source) is held and manipulated at the target weld location with the other hand. The action of manually manipulating the filler wire is a skill requiring significant physical dexterity in the hand, finger and wrist movements as well as precise mental dexterity regarding hand-to-eye coordination.
To ensure weld consistency, and thus weld integrity and resultant high quality hardware, the filler wire must be fed into the molten weld pool in a selective and specific manner to work in unison with the manual manipulations of the weld torch, which is applied and controlled by the opposite hand. Wide variations in specific hand, wrist, and finger movements are used from one welder to the next. No one specific hand technique/motion has been found which suits the skill level of every welder. Because of this, the repeatability and reliability of the GTAW process, when manually applied, is highly dependent upon the human factor; that is, the skill of the welder in manipulating the welding torch while concurrently feeding the filler wire into the weld pool.
Various welding wire feed systems are available in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,155,832 discloses a welding wire feeder designed to fit in a user's hand. A thumb operated feed wheel rolls against an idler roller and frictionally advances the welding wire through the rollers and a pair of guide tubes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,206,862 discloses a device including an electric motor for advancing welding wire through a handpiece. A potentiometer responsive to a finger pressure-sensitive switch on the handpiece regulates the motor speed and rate of wire advancement.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,377,792 discloses a tube to hold welding wire with a finger-operated friction lock to fix the wire in the tube until more wire is desired at which time the wire is simply grasped and slid further into the tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,697 discloses a wire feeder device for mounting on the welder's hand between the thumb and index finder. The wire is passed through fixed and moveable tubular feeders on the device which are designed to advance the wire as the moveable feeder moves back and forth when the index finger and thumb are squeezed together and released.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,394 disclosed a manual hand-held wire feeder having a tubular holder through which the welding wire is passed. The feeder includes a finger wheel on the holder and an idler wheel biased to the finger wheel by an elastic band. The wire is advanced by the finger wheel which is rotated by the index finger.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,426 discloses a welding wire holding device comprising a housing with a handle. The wire is passed through the housing and advanced by a thumb wheel mounted within the housing but protruding from the side thereof so as to allow its manipulation by the welder's thumb whereby the wire is advanced between a driving roller and compression roller.
All of the foregoing have disadvantages in one aspect or another in that they are structurally complex, unduly large, heavy and expensive, may require considerable efforts and dexterity of the welder in using the feeder device and in loading welding wire thereon, and with an associated and undesirable expenditure of time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION OF THE INVENTION
The invention is a manually operated welding wire feeder apparatus comprising an elongate metal frame with a feed roller mounted at the center of the frame for rotation about an axis transverse to the longitudinal axis of the frame. The frame ends are turned up as tabs approximately 90° to the frame axis and each provided with openings in alignment with each other and the mid-width center of the roller surface. The tab openings accommodate a range of welding wire sizes and include slot extensions leading to a side edge of the tab, both opening at edges on the same side of the frame, thereby allowing for welding wire to be side-loaded onto the frame.
On the side of the frame, opposite the roller, a loop ring handle is attached tangentially to the frame by a rivet or other means allowing the ring to rotate about the attachment point and about an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the frame.
The device is used by grasping it in the hand normally used to hold the wire. The index or middle finger is placed through the loop ring and the frame moved so as to position the device across the palm and lower portion of the fingers. The thumb is brought over the top of the wire and positioned thereon so it can be moved from near the back of the frame, across the roller, and towards the front of the frame. In doing so, the wire will be advanced at a steady rate to a predictable location and in an axial alignment with the tab openings and the roller.
To accommodate different wire diameters the frame is bent slightly about its center in the plane of the frame axis and wire so as to keep the wire in tension against the roller by a pressure sufficient to keep the wire fixed in the frame when tilted and thumb pressure is momentarily released.


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