The use of a flow meter for welding applications

Most of these welding processes utilise gas to protect welds from oxidation and to ignite and maintain the welding arc. Manufacturers of welding equipment can capitalise on some of our flow meters’ features. Accurate flow and pressure control of shield- and backing gases used during your welding process will provide a constant and stable weld and thereby improve the quality of the welds.

Which gases need to be controlled in welding processes?

Which characteristics of a flow instruments are important in optimising the welding process?

Flow instruments can help the mechanised or robotised welding processes in three distinct ways:

• To determine the flow rate of the purging gas; this way the right amount of gas can be regulated without excess use of expensive inert gas. One inert gas burst over a short period of time can remove all air inside those tubes and pipes resulting in better weld root protection and on a more efficient use of inert gas.
• By helping create a perfect arc strike and its maintenance providing the right amount of gas at the right time (while ignition takes places and thereafter).
• By offering a controllable internal pressure of the tubes and preventing operator/welding errors from happening. This pressure can be controlled as the weld is progressing with flow meters as flow rate and internal pressure relate to each other. It can be programmed, something extremely helpful with robotic or mechanized applications. Furthermore, it can control the mix of several gases to induce some special characteristics or control a specific aspect of a weld, by changing that mix as the weld progresses.
• Setpoints for flow controllers used for controlling the backing and/or shielding gasses may be programmed via Bronkhorst or 3^rd party software to synchronize with the applicable welding procedures. E.g. starting and stopping gas flow or changing flow rates and/or mixture composition can all be automated.