Electric heating – Metal heating – By arc
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-20
2002-08-27
Shaw, Clifford C. (Department: 1725)
Electric heating
Metal heating
By arc
C219S1370PS
Reexamination Certificate
active
06441342
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to the field of electric arc welding and more particularly to a monitor for monitoring the parameters and/or internal control signals of an electric arc welder during a welding cycle for the purpose of determining quality related characteristics of each welding cycle. Further, the invention relates to the method of monitoring an electric arc welder during a welding cycle to provide information regarding the actual performance of the welder during each welding cycle.
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE
For many years welding companies and welding engineers have been intent upon recording electrical characteristics of the operating parameters implemented by electric arc welders during various welding processes. Ziegenfuss 3,950,759 is representative of many monitors for electric arc welders. This patent is incorporated by reference as background information. Through the years, a variety of time monitors have been employed for electric arc welders to determine the time during which a welding is actually being performed. To this end, it is common practice to provide a timer, or program to measure the time of welding compared to the time the welder is idle. Shostek 3,359,561 is representative of several patents for measuring the time that an electric arc welder is operated during a set period, such as a work shift in a manufacturing plant. Consequently, it is common knowledge that during the arc welding cycle a timer, counter or similar time accumulation device can record the relative time between welding and non-welding. For illustrative purposes Shostek 3,359,561 is incorporated by reference.
With the advent of computers, microprocessors and other digital processing devices, such devices either external or internal of the electric arc welder, are employed for the purposes of measuring and documenting the operation of an electric arc welder. Again, several publications show the state of the art for computerized monitoring of an electric arc welder. To avoid the necessity for detailed explanation of the background associated with computerized monitors, Bloch 5,708,253 is incorporated by reference. In accordance with control technology as used in the field of electric arc welders, it is also common practice to employ a central microprocessor for controlling the inverter forming the power supply and other ancillary appliances of an electric arc welding installation, as illustrated in Bloch 5,708,253. When disclosing the software procedure employed in monitoring electric arc welders it is common practice to set forth the program implementation as a series of steps performed by the computer microprocessor or similar digital manipulation devices. A representative example of such standard technologies is disclosed in Bloch 5,708,253, which is incorporated by reference herein to avoid the necessity of explaining the state of the art.
All of these background patents are representative in nature and merely explain the state of the art in monitoring electric arc welders by using computer technology when manipulating an arc welder by computer software.
A more recent disclosure of a computer of CPU control circuit to monitor an electric arc welder is illustrated in Vaidya 6,051,805. This patent discloses a system for monitoring several parameters in an electric arc welder, such as current, wire feed speed and gas flow, while using a computer to manipulate the measured characteristics of the parameters to generate information regarding the operation of an electric arc welder. As background information, Vaidya 6,051,805 is also incorporated by reference as background information and the state of the art.
The present invention is implemented on a Power Wave electric arc welder manufactured and sold by The Lincoln Electric Company of Cleveland, Ohio. A patent disclosing characteristics of this electric arc welder is Blankenship 5,278,390 incorporated by reference as showing a representative electric arc welder of the type used in practicing the present invention. Such welder, as shown in
FIGS. 11 and 13
, includes a wave form or wave shape generator to generate the series of rapidly repeating wave shapes constituting a weld cycle with a cycle time. Such wave shape generator is used for a variety of welding processes, such as pulse welding. The concept is also employed for a surface tension transfer short circuit welding process of the type disclosed in Stava 6,051,810. The Stava patent is also incorporated by reference as background information showing the use of a wave shape generator for generating the individual wave shapes that are outputted by an electric arc welder to create a weld cycle during a weld time, which is a total time that the welder is operating for a single welding process.
These many patents incorporated by reference herein illustrate the state of the art to which the present invention is directed, which state of the art is well known by manufacturers of electric arc welders as well as welding engineers implementing welding processes by arc welders.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
Manufacturers of electric arc welders have attempted to monitor operation of the welder to determine the quality of the weld and the efficiency of the welder during operation in a manufacturing facility. One of the latest attempts to monitor an electric arc welder is illustrated in Vaidya 6,051,805 where a computer or other programmed instrument is employed to monitor average current and the efficiency of the welding operation, which efficiency is expressed as the time welding is performed as a ratio of the total time of the work shift. In accordance with standard technology, this disclosed monitoring system includes a first control circuit which is in the form of a central processing unit with standard accessories such as RAM, EPROM, and CIA. A second control circuit is connected to the first circuit to input and output information during the monitoring procedure. The monitor gathers information over a period of time which is disclosed as extending over a few hours or up to 999 hours. The monitor determines welding efficiency and monitors time to determine average current and accumulated arc welding time for overall efficiency. In accordance with this patent, there is a capability of monitoring the current and wire feed speed, as well as gas flow during the welding procedure. All of this information is stored in appropriate memory devices for purposes of outputting to read the operating characteristics of the welder during the welding process. In this way, the productivity of the welder can be measured to calculate cost efficiency and other parameters. Monitoring of the electric arc welder, as suggested in this patent, has been attempted by other manufacturers to measure average current during a welding process. However, measuring average current, voltage wire feed speed or other parameters during a welding process and using this data for recording the performance of the welding operation has not been satisfactory. In the past, monitoring devices have no pre-knowledge of the parameters being monitored. They only have capability of monitoring that which is occurring, as opposed to comparing that which is occurring to a priori knowledge. Consequently, monitoring of parameters such as current voltage and even wire feed speed in the past, even using the advanced technology set forth in Vaidya 6,051,805, has been chaotic in response and incapable of determining the actual stability of the electric arc or whether the welding process is above or below desired parameter values. This information must be known for the purpose of rejecting a welding cycle and/or determining the quality of the weld performed during the welding cycle with desired accuracy. In summary, monitoring the operation of an electric arc welder when used for a variety of welding processes has not been satisfactory because there is no prior knowledge which can be used for the purposes of evaluating the welding process during its implementation. The high powered programming capabilities now available do not overcome the lack of a syst
Lincoln Global Inc.
Shaw Clifford C.
Vickers Daniels & Young
LandOfFree
Monitor for electric arc welder does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Monitor for electric arc welder, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Monitor for electric arc welder will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2944556