Welding Heat Input Helper

Purpose of Heat Input Helper (HIH):

To assist welders, welding supervisors and inspection personnel to control welding heat input in the field.

Background:

Welding heat input is one of the most difficult aspects of welding to control out in the field, because the Heat Input (HI) is a function of the welding current, voltage and travel speed. While many modern power sources will give a reading for the voltage and amperage, when performing manual or semi-automatic welding, the travel speed can only be calculated in hindsight, and hence the heat input can also only be calculated in hindsight. This means that controlling heat input turns into a trial and error endeavour. The Heat Input Helper (HIH) application has been developed to overcome this difficulty by giving a continuous feedback regarding the maximum and minimum distances that should have been welded to stay within the target maximum and minimum heat input limits.

How Heat Input Helper Works:

By entering the actual Voltage, Amperage and weld length, along with the target values for maximum and minimum heat input, the application provides you with a constant visual output of the maximum and minimum distances that you should have welded to be within those heat input limits. It therefore soon becomes apparent if the welder's travel speed is too fast or too slow, and timely remedial action becomes possible.

Heat Input Helper Application Features:

1) Continuous minimum and maximum weld distances are shown, to give continuous feedback regarding progress required to stay within the target maximum and minimum heat input values.
2) You can use millimetre or inch units.
3) Heat inputs are continuously logged during the weld run, so if the voltage and amperage parameters are adjusted during the weld run, the new parameter values are only applicable to the time in which they remain active, and do not influence previously logged values.
4) A pause button is provided, to allow for times when the welder needs to break the arc.
5) A delay timer is built into the heat input helper application. This will assist a welder that wants to perform his own heat input checks, when s/he does not have anybody else to push the buttons for him / her. This function will perform the specified delay (say 6 seconds) before commencing the timer, and deduct this same amount of time from the total time when pressing the pause or finish button.
6) At the end of the weld run, the average heat input and the welding travel speed of the weld run is shown. This allows you to record these without further calculation, if required.

An HTML5 version of the heat input helper application is freely available for use and evaluation on the WelderPassport website. Please visit: www.welderpassport.com to evaluate the application.