Welding Goes Digital

Mr. Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra, National Sales Manager, Kemppi India Pvt. Ltd.

Q. What’s exciting in the Welding Industry today?
Welding has been primarily associated with Mechanical Engineering. Interestingly, when we see the Welding Machine Manufacturers little closely we will find that they are engaged in “Electrical and Electronics Manufacturing”!! This brings in the “fundamental” change in the way we look at the industry. When it is controlled in terms of Electronics it becomes a combination of “hardware” and “software”. While the development in the hardware side has been growing the software side has grown leaps and bounds.

Today companies like KEMPPI bring in the world’s first “Total Welding Quality Management System”. KEMPPI Arc System 3 in a nutshell is a complete software application covering welding documentation and quality requirements for welding procedures, welding certificates, non destructive testing and production process control. It fits any size or type of organisation and its modular system enables management of documentation and reporting of projects, providing optimal control and use of resources. It also enables full traceability of welding activities before, during and after welding.

The demand from the industry has been ever increasing with the introduction of new materials and processes. Organizations have to be equipped with machines which can not only yield to the growing demands, but meet the existing and the future needs. This is where the ‘software’ plays a major role in making it look simpler and integrate along with the new demands. The machine becomes more flexible or modular in nature to perform the desired task. These software help the welder to overcome their challenges and increase the productivity. “Rework’ is a major cost and concern in welding, and can be controlled substantially with the use of this software.

Q. We have been talking about automation for quite some time. What is the level of automation we could achieve so far?
The Indian market is quite intriguing. At one end we have still the transformers running and at the extreme end we have Automation too. Going forward Automation will be the focus area as organizations keep pushing the limits for productivity, challenge the limits in consistency, quality and uniformity. Besides all these tangible factors we face another major hurdle which actually compels to go for “Automation”!

Lack of qualified and skilled welders is a primary cause to go for automation. Many times I listen to owners telling me that it is easier to deal with ‘machines’ than ‘humans’ !!

At KEMPPI we supply power sources for automated welding. These are compatible with any robot. We support from the welding side. We ensure that the weld quality is good, there is no rework or rejection. The welds are spatter-free and entail high productivity. We offer special software to ensure better control on arc and position of the torch so that we get a perfect weld without depending on the welder skill. These softwares are of four types: WiseRoot, WisePenetration, WiseThin and WiseFusion. WiseRoot, as the name suggests, is used for root runs. Wise Penetration helps in uniform penetration. In thin sheet welding, aesthetics are very important. WiseThin controls the heat input, so that the deformation is bare minimum and the weld bead is beautiful and gives the desired shape. WiseFusion is used for aluminium welding. It is used especially for aerospace applications.

Q. Could you elaborate on the use of digital technology in welding and the benefits reaped so far?
The last few years has seen many changes in technology touching our lives. If we look around us our phones have undergone sea change – from an analogue to a smart phone. KEMPPI is the pioneer in bringing Digital Technology to the welding world. We had launched world’s first digital welding inverter “PRO Series” in 1993. It has helped the welding world to be more precise and accurate in terms of settings and demystifying the myths around a welding machine.

After imbibing the digital technology it was much easier to bring in “software” to augment the machine. This brings in to the fore ‘challenges faced by welders’. These could be addressed by the software. It has actually helped the welders in performing their tasks in a better manner than before.