Beam welder
September 1st 2006

IJM TimberFrame in Ireland offers a one-stop shop for people building new homes. One of the products it offers is a steel open floor beam, the fabrication of which is being carried out using an ESAB automated beam welder.

The beam is fabricated from three plates: a 100 by 12mm plate on the top, a 150 by 6mm web and a 250 by 10mm plate at the bottom, with lengths from 6 to 12m.

An ESAB manipulator is mounted on a compact 15m track that requires minimal floor space. While the carriage is driven along the track at 1.3m/min to weld the beam components, operators are able to unload a finished beam from a parallel fixture and load another set of components.

The boom rotates between the fixtures.

Twin ESAB A6 welding heads perform submerged arc welding concurrently on either side of the web. Twin wires are fed to each head via specially designed contact tubes.

An onboard ESAB TPC75 pressure tank feeds flux to the welding heads.

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