Adaptive welding remains a small proportion of the UK’s welding market, but its ability to improve the quality of weld and drive cost out of the manufacturing process could offer many manufacturers an alternative to traditional methods.
As resistance spot welding users will know, the process is prone to weld disturbance, including shunting, caused by alternative current paths leading to a loss of energy, bad fitting of sheets and also variations of coating and sheet thickness.
Problems can also include deterioration of the condition of welding tips, inclusion of sealer and adhesives between the material, and problems attributable to wear of pneumatic cylinders, which creates a variation in weld force affecting weld condition. The issues surrounding resistance spot welding do not stop once the process is complete. Quality checking is problematic and rests on two methods.
Download here.
Comment: The UK is closer to deindustrialisation than reindustrialisation
"..have been years in the making" and are embedded in the actors - thus making it difficult for UK industry to move on and develop and apply...