Page 57: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2026)

WELDING ly after releasing it from the magnetic bed. ware (laser and optical vision systems), tion rate, travel speed and bead place-

Other issues included rework to repair software and PLCs to automatically read ment (while staying within the WPS) so weld defects and the need to manually the bevel, plan bead placement and auto- that the complete weld will not need any weld the last several inches of the plate matically compensate for irregularities. patching. After completing the cap, the because excess heat input could cause They can weld U or V grooves on plate system can even automatically read and weld cracking. By shifting to a newer up to 6 in. During weld execution, feed- document the bead height and toe angle multiwire technology that features a DC back sensors adjust weld metal deposi- for documentation purposes.

leading arc, AC trailing arc and an electri- cally cold electrode in the center, the ship- yard can now weld a 40-ft. seam without distortion, perfect reinforcement on the top side and an excellent back side bead pro? le. Actual results for welding a 3/8- in. plate a V-bevel con? guration: welding speed of 55.1 in./min, heat input of 51.6 kJ/in. and a deposition rate of 52.7 lb/h.

PITFALL 11:

Unwillingness to Change

The hardest thing to change is human nature because changing what currently works introduces the possibility of fail- ure. It may take a crisis to induce change.

On one component valued at more than $750,000 dollars, a company discovered that an unquali? ed operator worked on the project. Because it could not link the operator to speci? c work, it had to scrap the component. The company has subse- quently implemented software that tracks variables associated with each weld seam, including the operator, machine and consumables. An adjacent solution includes machines that require RFID card access so that operators can only use processes for which they’re quali? ed.

PITFALL 12:

Programming at the Robot

Programming at the robot guarantees a lower arc factor. O? ine robot pro- gramming (OLRP) functions in a vir- tual, o? ine environment on a computer.

It eliminates the need for robots to be taken out of production, greatly improv- ing productivity and the bottom line

PITFALL 13:

Thinking Humans Need to Plan Weld Seams

Adaptive planning or “deep learning” welding systems for SAW combine hard- www.marinelink.com 57

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