As a rule of thumb, typical Rotoweld 3.0 welding times are as follows: 

1 min/inch dia for standard wall pipes prepared with 37.5 deg bevels

1.5 min/inch dia for heavy wall pipes (again with 37.5 deg bevels)

A more precise calculation can be achieved using the formula below (valid for 37.5 deg bevel):

W = (D x0.31416) + (40 x T2 x D) / R

• W is the welding time (minutes)
• T is the pipe thickness (inches)
• D is the pipe diameter (inches)
• R is the deposition rate (lbs/h)

Watch the Rotoweld process an 8-inch SCH 40 carbon steel pipe in less than 8 minutes.

Typically, a welder will be fully effective with the Rotoweld after 1 week. But to get the most from the Rotoweld, you must also consider the supply chain. If you can’t feed the machine with enough pipes, it won’t give you the best results.

Rotoweld technology adapts the welding process to varying conditions, such as changes in gap, alignment and root face. Pipe fitting must be done using root tacks, which need to be feathered with a grinder to let the automated welding adapt to it properly. The Rotoweld can handle gaps up to 6 mm and HI-LOs up to 75% of the gap. Practically, the system’s fast response time allows for high deposition rates and travel speeds at which weld pool conditions are so critical that they could not be sustained by hand.

Watch the video below featuring a typical pipe preparation.

Nothing out of the ordinary in the welding industry, but here are some benchmarks for heavy users:

Daily: fill torch contact tip
Weekly: fill torch liner
Monthly: root torch contact tip, camera window
3 months: Root torch contact tip and camera’s plastic disposable window
Yearly: Fill torch liner and water chiller coolant

The Rotoweld 3.0 comes with basic welding programs to accelerate the qualification of WPS.

Because of its optimized linear design, the Rotoweld 3.0 can be installed along the walls of a shop, or along the borders  between two production bays of a plant, which is usually square feet that are not optimized or used for piling stuff. What is important is to clear the centre of a shop where there is traffic and production flow. 

Shops that follow these guidelines usually double their available floor space in the middle of the shop or bay, making more space for pipe fitting stations (required to feed 150+ inch dia per shift with a Rotoweld 3.0 Single Bay). This results in better spool line-up on the floor and easing the displacement of mobile fume extractors.

Some will compare an optimized linear station, like the Rotoweld 3.0, to a collaborative robot approach. Collaborative robots can give the impression that minor adjustments must be made  to a  shop to integrate them into production and claim  that the required floor space is limited to the bolt pattern of the steel plate of the robot’s base (4’x4′). This is not the case when you consider the operational footprint required by the welding arm. 

The Rotoweld, with its linear design, can be installed along the walls of a shop or along the borders between two production bays of a plant. The collaborative robot base cannot be mounted along a wall to save space. It has to be bolted towards the centre of the shop and needs approximately 10 feet perpendicularly to the pipe axis to perform all the maneuvers of welding a 30-foot spool. 

So all in all, the footprint impact of a Rotoweld is slightly less than a collaborative robot for equivalent spool specifications. Finally, it is  important to keep in mind that an optimized Rotoweld 3.0 integration will usually liberate the space required  for increasing productivity.

Rotoweld 3.0 Single Bay: 

• 7.5 ft. (W) x 30 ft. (L)= 225 ft²
• 2.3 m (W) x 9.2 m (L) = 21 m²

Collaborative robot with 1 positioner

• 15 ft. (W) x 30 ft. (L)*= 450 ft²
• 4.5 m (W) x 9 m (L)*= 40.5 m²

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Rotoweld 3.0 Twin Bay:

• 7.5 ft. (W) x 77 ft. (L)= 578 ft²
• 2.3 m (W) x 23.8 m (L) = 55 m²

Collaborative robot with 2 positioners

• 30 ft. (W) x 30 ft. (L)*= 900 ft²
• 9 m (W) x 9 m (L)*= 81 m²

* Welding arm can move within 15 ft. of base