Column and boom manipulators are versatile tools used to position the weld head in the manufacture of large equipment such as vessels. The manipulator may be paired with other positioning equipment to maintain a favorable welding position. In the oil and gas industry where the column and boom is used for cladding, considerable thought is put into rotating the weld head in an endless manner.

Challenges

Due to the heights involved, its often beneficial to provide the welding operator with remote vision of the process so that he can monitor and control the weld head from the ground.

MeltTools’ Solution

MeltTools offers several different solutions for monitoring column and boom welding. The appropriate solution is specific to the welding process used (GMAW, SAW or GTAW) and takes into consideration space constraints to determine the most suitable model of camera.

One recent customer, WeldPlus (Cincinnati, Ohio) required a solution to monitor a 12’x12’column and boom unit setup with a Miller Electric GMAW process. Lincoln Electric provided the CS250 slides and tactile seam tracking system to maintain the position of the weld head to the seam. MeltTools provided a DART camera system which included the camera, camera mount, cabling and tubing, monitor and camera control unit. In this case, the weld torch is positioned by the Lincoln seam tracker. The DART camera was located above the solidifying puddle to monitor it. Weld Plus integrated the three different vendors’ solutions into a control station as shown below.