Weld Builder - Creating a Stitch Weld

Stitch Welding refers to a welding technique that involves making a series of short, intermittent welds along a joint, rather than a continuous weld. This process can be useful to help better distribute heat input along the joint and reduce the amount of weldment when it may not be required.

Weld Builder can assist in the creation of Stitch Welds by defining a few extra parameters for each a weld segment. The definition is broken up into two sections, the definition of how the weld segments are calculated and the motion of the robot.

Defining The Weld Segments

Weld Builder provides two parameters when defining how the stitch weld will be generated.

• Weld Length: The desired length of each welding segment. This value can range from 0.1 mm to 1 meter (0.01" - 39.37").
• Gap Length: The expected distance between each welding segment. This value can range from 0.1 mm to 1 meter (0.01" - 39.37").

Do note that if the specified weld/gap lengths do not fit the motion segment length then the gap length may be shortened or an error message may be displayed.

Adjusting The Stitching Motion

Programming the motion of a stitch weld is simplified by only requiring a weld start and end position for a single linear sequence of welds. However, this does impose a limitation in which only a single LINEAR motion segment is permitted for each stitch weld. This also means that CIRCULAR motion is not permitted while stitching is enabled.

These factors enable more simplified parameterized inputs of the welding motion. The sequencing, speed, and distance of the stitch weld can all be easily modified with the following parameters:

• Weld Ordering: The specific sequence in which welding path will be generated.
  
  • Sequential: Creates the welds in an unbroken linear sequence.
    (1, 2, 3, ... n)
  
  
  • Outside-in: Creates the welds starting at the outer edges of a joint and working inward.
    (1, 3, ... n, 2)
• Lift Distance: The vertical distance the torch is raised between welds. May be used to prevent tip drag or collision with the part. The direction of travel is that of -Z in Tool Frame for the same tool as the programmed path.
• Translation Speed: The speed at which the robot moves between welds. Programming a slower speed during this motion may help manage heat input into the weld joint.

Programming a Stitch Weld

1. Locate the stitch weld configuration page. Then Move the toggle switch to the right to enable stitching. The graphics below indicate how to perform this action depending on which method of creation is being used:

   • Weld Wizard
     Located on the "Optional Weld Featues" step of the wizard.
     
   • Weld Editor
     Located under the Path Features tab of the weld instruction. Press the [ CONFIGURE ] button after enabling.
     
2. Adjust Weld Segment Definition
   
   Set the desired weld and gap lengths.
   

   Note that the sum of the weld and gap length should not exceed the total length of the stitch seam.

3. Motion Adjustment
   
   Here you can adjust the generated sequencing of welds, speed, and distance.
4. Programming Motion
   
   When programming the motion of the weld seam, be sure to program both a start and an end weld position. This will consist of two motion instructions. The second of which must be a linear move.
   • No circular motion is permitted while the arc is energized. Meaning, a circular approach/weld start position is permitted.
   • Only a single linear segment is permitted to define the length of the weld.