Fronius WireSense applications

Traditional seam finding technologies for arc welding applications involve touch sensing and laser seam finding functions.  While robust and widely applicable, there are limitations with both of these technologies.

Applying touch sensing to thin materials provides challenges in reliably locating lap joints and butt joints.  Also, touch sensing with softer welding wires, such as aluminum, requires very slow robot search speeds making touch sensing often difficult to justify.

Laser seam finding can be successfully applied to some thin-gauge applications, but can experience difficulties when challenged with reflective surface conditions.  In addition, laser sensor hardware that increases system cost and is typically required to be mounted close to the welding torch (possibly impeding reach access of the robot).

A new technology was developed by Fronius wherein the welding wire can be used for high speed searching of reflective and thin-gauge materials, even with soft welding wire, such as aluminum.  The Fronius CMT push-pull feed system is required for the technology, and a small license fee is required to activate the function inside the welding power supply (as of 2023, WireSense is only supported on the TPSi power supply).

WireSense is available on the YRC1000 controller (via Weldcom II … UWI Fronius will have WireSense once UWI is released) and has been applied to several applications in the PSG process lab.  The videos below are showing examples of this technology.