Patent GB-510116-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in electric welding apparatus
Inventor: WILLIAM BAIRD ALBERT
IPC: B23K9/18
Filed: 1938-07-28
Abstract: 510,116. Uniting by fusion LINDE AIR PRODUCTS CO. July 28, 1938, No. 22434. Convention date, Aug. 7, 1937. [Class 83 (iv)] In an electric welding machine particularly of the kind in which the end of the electrode is submerged under a blanket of flux heaped up on the seam for making seam, corner, or fillet welds in plates &c. the stator of an electric motor, the electrode straightening and feeding mechanism, and a housing for gears by which this mechanism is driven by the motor, are mounted for adjustment as a unit about the axis of the motor armature, whilst the straightening and feeding mechanism is adjustable relatively to the gear housing in the plane of the seam. The casing 10 of the mechanism for straightening and feeding the electrode R, which also carries the flux feed device F, is provided with a rib 228 having an arcuate slot 230 centred about a shaft 64, and engaging a stud 232 threaded in the gear housing H, and is also provided with studs 226, Fig. 2, engaging arcuate slots 220, 224 in ribs formed on the gear housing. The angular portion of the electrode in relation to the joint may thus be adjusted. Graduations may be provided along the slots. The gear housing terminates in an annular bearing 196, which may be graduated and to which the motor M is secured, the bearing being angularly adjusted by a worm gear 234, 265 in a mounting A on an arm 284, which is pivotally mounted on a fixed or movable support S either in a horizontal or vertical plane so as to follow irregularities in the seam. The worm 265 is operated by a wrench on one of the squared ends of the iron shaft or through spiral gear from a shaft 275 having squared ends. The arm 284 is provided with spaced bearings 288, 290 keyed to a shaft 295 rotatably mounted by anti-friction bearings in the rims 298 and 300 of the support S. A screw 302 adjusts the bearing pressure on the shaft 295. A clamping sleeve 304 surrounds and is keyed to the central portion of the shaft 295 and this is in turn surrounded by a split clamp 306, which may be left loose or tightened by a bolt 312 through bolts 320 so as to secure the shaft 295 rigidly. The bolt 312 may pass through one of a number of apertures in the support S or the clamp may be angularly adjusted so that shaft 219 by chain gear 216, 188, worm 194 and worm wheel 68 on shaft 64, which carries also a spare gear 66 engaging a gear 60 meshing with gears 50 on the shafts of the feed rolls 48. The feed rolls co-operate with pressure rolls 75 with plane faces. The pressure rolls and intermediate grooved straightening rolls 76 are screw adjusted. The electrode passes through a bushing 328 on the support S and then over a tensioning roller 246 carried by a screw-adjusted bell crank 242, and after passing through the straightening and feed rolls proceeds through a pair of grooved contact jaws 98, 99 which are secured to a rib on the casing 10 and are separately connected to the welding conductors. These jaws are grooved on each side so as to be reversable. The jaw 99 is pressed by a spring against the fixed jaw 98. The flux is conveyed from the hopper 150 down a rectangular port. The feed rolls are driven from the motor the bolt may be arranged parallel to the supshoot 152 provided with a shut-off gate 162 and a slidably mounted control gate 166. The shutoff gate may be withdrawn from its guides and secured to a hook 164 on the part 152. The casing is provided with a device for engaging the seam or other guide surface so as to guide the apparatus with relation to the joint. This may consist of spring pressed fingers 138 pivoted at 136 to a bracket 128, which is provided with a cylindrical portion 126, Fig. 4, freely rotatable in a slide 114 laterally adjusted by a screw 118 in guides on a block 110 secured to the bus bar 87. The fingers 138 may be raised into inoperative position by slots 148 on a slide 144 which is provided with slots 146 moving over the pivots 136. When the rod is fed vertically with respect to the work, an adapter strap 390, Fig. 16, (not shown), may be secured to the bus bar to form a support for the seam guide. Another form of guide may consist of a bracket 128<1>, Fig. 8, mounted in a similar manner to the bracket 128, and carrying in slots 354, 356 the pivots 358, 360 of a pair of spring-pressed arms 362 carrying rollers 364. The arms are raised out of operation by blocks 374, 376 on hand-operated bars. When in operative position the rollers engage an obstruction the arms 362 tend to pivot about the blocks 374, 376 and the pins 358, 360 move in the slots 354, 356. The bracket 128<1> may be held against rotation by a set screw. In a further form, Fig. 11, the block 110 is secured to a support 430 either fixed directly by a bolt 428 to an L-shaped bracket 422 or to an elongated slotted horizontal bar secured to the bracket 422. The bracket is clamped to a stud 420 carried by a support 416, which has a lip 414 engaging a circular groove in a slotted ring 400, which is connected by ribs 406 to a portion 402 bolted to the bus bar 87. The support may be traversed along the work or vice-versa.