Coded and electronically tagged welding wire
First Claim
1. A method of controlling an electric arc welding process having a plurality of operating conditions and wherein a welding wire is advanced toward a workpiece and a welding arc is established between the advancing wire and the workpiece, including:
- a) providing a stored source of coded information pertaining to variations along the length of a welding wire to be used in an electric arc welding process;
b) scanning the stored source for extracting coded information therefrom pertaining to variations along the length of the wire; and
, c) controlling and/or selecting at least one of the plurality of operating conditions of said welding process in accordance with the extracted information.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Information pertaining to characteristics of metal welding electrode wire and which characteristics are useful in connection with adjusting welding parameters in an arc welding process and/or selecting between operating modes in a welding system are encoded on welding wire and/or on other memory components such as bar code labels and tags, RFID cards and tags, IC cards, and Touch Memory buttons, and the memory device is scanned prior to and/or at the point of use of the welding wire for enabling tracking of product distribution, manual and/or automatic selection of an operating mode for the welding system, manual and/or automatic adjustment of welding parameters in a given operating mode, consumables inventory, and the like.
90 Citations
43 Claims
-
1. A method of controlling an electric arc welding process having a plurality of operating conditions and wherein a welding wire is advanced toward a workpiece and a welding arc is established between the advancing wire and the workpiece, including:
-
a) providing a stored source of coded information pertaining to variations along the length of a welding wire to be used in an electric arc welding process;
b) scanning the stored source for extracting coded information therefrom pertaining to variations along the length of the wire; and
,c) controlling and/or selecting at least one of the plurality of operating conditions of said welding process in accordance with the extracted information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
d) operating said welding process in said first mode in response to said extracted information being said first code; and
,e) operating said welding process in said second mode in response to said extracted information being said second code.
-
-
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said stored source of coded information at least one of an RFID component, an IC component, and a semi-conductor memory chip.
-
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said stored source of coded information is magnetically imprinted on the welding wire.
-
5. The method according to claim 1, including:
-
d) comparing the extracted information with preselected information; and
,e) controlling said at least one operating condition based on said comparison.
-
-
6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said operating conditions include first and second operating modes for the process and said extracted and preselected information respectively provide first and second codes, said method including:
-
f) operating said process in said first mode when said first and second codes are the same; and
,g) operating said process in said second mode when said first and second codes are different.
-
-
7. The method according to claim 1, including:
-
d) providing said coded information on a component mounted on a container for said wire; and
,e) scanning the component on said container for extracting information therefrom pertaining to the wire.
-
-
8. The method according to claim 7, wherein said component is one of an RFID tag, IC tag and a semi-conductor memory chip.
- 9. A system for controlling an electric arc welding process wherein a welding wire is advanced toward a workpiece and a welding arc is established between the advancing wire and the workpiece comprising, a stored source of coded information pertaining to variations along the length of said wire, a code scanner to scan said stored source and to output a signal indicative of said coded information pertaining to variations along the length of wire said wire, and a controller operating the welding process in accordance with said signal.
- 16. A system for controlling the operation of electric arc welding apparatus wherein a welding wire is advanced toward a workpiece and a welding arc is established between the advancing wire and the workpiece comprising, a scanner to scan said wire as it is advancing and outputting a signal indicative of coded information thereon pertaining to said wire, and a controller to shift the operation of the welding apparatus in accordance with said signal.
-
20. A method of controlling an electric arc welding process having a plurality of operating conditions and wherein a welding wire is advanced toward a workpiece and a welding arc is established between the advancing wire and the workpiece, including:
-
a) providing coded information on said welding wire to be used in an electric arc welding process;
b) scanning the moving welding wire for extracting coded information therefrom pertaining to the wire; and
,c) selecting one of the plurality of operating conditions of said process in accordance with the extracted information. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
d) operating said process in said first mode in response to said extracted information being said first code; and
,e) operating said process in said second mode in response to said extracted information being said second code.
-
-
22. The method according to claim 20, wherein the stored source of coded information is at least one of the welding wire, an RFID component, an IC component, and a semi-conductor memory chip.
-
23. A method of controlling an electric arc welding process having a plurality of operating conditions and wherein a welding wire is advanced toward a workpiece and a welding arc is established between the advancing wire and the workpiece, including:
-
a) providing a stored source of coded information pertaining to variations along the length of a welding wire to be used in an electric arc welding process;
b) scanning the stored source for extracting coded information therefrom pertaining to variations along the length of the wire;
c) controlling at least one of the plurality of operating conditions of said process in accordance with the extracted information;
d) providing said coded information on said welding wire; and
,e) scanning the advancing wire for extracting coded information therefrom pertaining to the wire.
-
-
24. A method of controlling an electric arc welding process having a plurality of operating conditions and wherein a welding wire is advanced toward a workpiece and a welding arc is established between the advancing wire and the workpiece, including:
-
a) scanning the advancing wire for coded information pertaining to variations along the length of the wire; and
,b) controlling at least one of the plurality of operating conditions in response to the information extracted from the wire wherein said coded information includes at least one code segment of one of a pulse count, a pulse width, a pulse frequency, and a binary value. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28)
-
- 29. A system for controlling the operation of electric arc welding apparatus wherein a welding wire is advanced toward a workpiece and a welding arc is established between the advancing wire and the workpiece comprising, means for scanning said wire and outputting a signal indicative of coded information thereon pertaining to said wire, and control means for controlling the operation of the welding apparatus in accordance with said signal, wherein said coded information includes code segments and the outputted signal is representative of at least one code segment, and a decoder for receiving and decoding at least one code segment.
-
31. A method of controlling an electric arc welding process having a plurality of operating conditions and wherein a welding wire is advanced toward a workpiece and a welding arc is established between the advancing wire and the workpiece, including:
-
a) scanning the advancing wire for coded information pertaining to the wire; and
,b) selecting one of the plurality of operating conditions in response to the information extracted from the wire wherein the coded information is in a semi-conductor memory chip in electrical contact with a remote end of said advancing wire.
-
-
32. A method of controlling an electric arc welding process having a plurality of operating conditions and wherein a welding wire is advanced toward a workpiece and a welding arc is established between the advancing wire and the workpiece, including:
-
a) providing a stored source of coded information pertaining to a welding accessory to be used in an electric arc welding process, said stored source of coded information including a source selected from the group consisting of a RFID component, IC component, a semi-conductor memory component, a magnetic imprint on the welding wire, and combinations thereof, said stored source of coded information in the form of electrical and/or electromagnetic wave information;
b) extracting the coded information from the welding accessory; and
,c) controlling and/or selecting at least one of the plurality of operating conditions of said welding process in accordance with said extracted information. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34)
-
-
35. A method of creating coded information for use in electric arc welding, said method comprising:
-
(a) manufacturing welding wire involving moving of a length of said welding wire along a given path to a storage device for subsequent use;
(b) providing coded information;
(c) loading said coded information into a readable memory device;
(d) coordinating said loading operation by said moving wire so said coded information is correlated to an area of or position on said welding wire. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38)
-
-
39. A system for creating coded information for use in electric arc welding, said system comprising:
- a manufacturing device that moves a length of said welding wire along a given path to a storage device for subsequent use;
a source of coded information;
a device for loading said coded information into a readable memory device; and
a device for coordinating said loading operation by said moving wire so said coded information is correlated to an area of or position on said welding wire. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41)
- a manufacturing device that moves a length of said welding wire along a given path to a storage device for subsequent use;
-
42. A method of gaging the remaining wire of a wire supply for an electric arc welder, said method comprising:
-
(a) providing a memory device storing a first coded information regarding the length of wire in said supply;
(b) reading the amount of wire from said supply used for welding to give a second coded information of said amount; and
,(c) subtracting said second coded information from said first coded information to gage the remaining wire.
-
-
43. A storage device for electric arc welding wire having a semi-conductor touch memory chip with stored data, a coil of electric arc welding wire in contact with said memory chip and a device in contact with said wire to read data from said memory chip through said wire.
Specification