Automating exact welds with an Arduino

Welding is a talent that takes years to good, and but constantly inserting a TIG welder in precisely the precise spot many instances over is sort of unimaginable. To help with this course of, just a few of element14 Presents host Kaleb Clark and his firm’s purchasers had constructed two rigs utilizing PLCs however wanted one other answer after dropping the accompanying laptop computer.

The primary system was a repurposed lathe that was pushed by a stepper motor and gearbox meeting. Clark was in a position to retrofit the circuit by connecting an LCD show, rotary encoder, and a motor driver to an Arduino Uno. He additionally connected an optically-isolated relay for controlling when the welder ought to activate to start welding the half, in addition to two switches for toggling the welder’s output on or off. All of those parts had been then positioned right into a briefcase lined with foil to forestall exterior interference from the TIG welder.

The second and extra sophisticated system was a linear gantry that strikes the top of a TIG welder simply above the perimeters of the fabric and fires at particular intervals. The electronics for this undertaking had been almost an identical excluding the toggle switches being changed by a set of three giant buttons. New settings may very well be despatched from a webpage over Wi-Fi to an ESP8266 board and forwarded by way of serial to the Arduino. Nevertheless, the buttons ended up being eliminated resulting from extra electrical interference.

To see extra about Clark’s undertaking, you possibly can watch its video beneath.