The following is an excerpt from an article published on Tube Pipe and Journal, written by Lincoln Brunner
Cobot welding system speeds processing of high-strength materials
Automation can make almost any manufacturing job look easy—effortless, even. But getting there? That’s a different story, especially with the specialized demands inherent in many TIG welding operations.
That’s why when M&M Industrial Services—an oil and gas industry service provider in Beaumont, Texas—got the first test unit for Novarc Technologies’ SWR-TIPTIG cobot, the company was very pleased to discover just how reliable the technology could make its mission-critical welding tasks.
Automating a Tricky Task
The SWR-TIPTIG system is specifically designed for the kinds of jobs M&M does daily (especially stainless pipes) in what Operations Manager Daniel Metreyeon called “a 9-1-1 shop of everything” for the oil and gas industry. In addition to the pipe jobs flowing through M&M, the welding system also is tailored to pressure vessels and roll welding applications, especially high-strength materials such as carbon steel, duplex, super duplex, INCONEL alloy, titanium, and of course stainless. M&M utilizes 4130 grades in its TIG weld process used in subsea and well-control piping for the oil and gas industry.
When Novarc began concept work on the welding system in 2021 and 2022, it was mainly focused on providing a solution for shipbuilding, especially copper-nickel pipes, according to Novarc CEO Soroush Karimzadeh. That material, along with the many types of specialty stainless steel, often calls for TIG exclusively.
“Copper-nickel that’s used in piping on saltwater systems in shipbuilding … is almost impossible to weld with MIG processes,” Karimzadeh said. “It can only be welded with TIG. The other materials, the stainless steel materials used in aerospace or other industries, they’re also very similar. They’re very difficult.”
For Metreyeon, the physical demands of the materials that M&M welds on tight deadlines called for a process that accomplishes what manual TIG and MIG often cannot, quickly and efficiently. These fabrications routinely include high-pressure pipes rated up to 20,000 PSI. That’s why the company agreed to help put this unit to the test for this system—actually, as the alpha tester.
“We actually had a prototype that got here in January 2024,” Metreyeon said. “We worked closely with our welding engineers and Novarc to develop the procedures and the weld recipes. There are 13 combinations of pipe grades that we’ve helped develop weld recipes for, which includes stainless, carbon steel, and all the high-strength grades.
“We agreed to enter this arrangement to help improve production,” he noted. “Our line of work involves a lot of TIG in our high-pressure fabrication. These systems include up to 20K and 15K piping here. This helps provide alternative options to the MIG process for high-strength applications.”
Of course, nothing is fully automatic—even a cobot with as many preprogrammed welding protocols as this latest unit has. That is particularly true when welding the 2-in.-thick pipes with a 3.5-in. weld gap common to M&M’s operation. For those kinds of jobs, Metreyeon said, it’s incumbent on welding operators to prevent weld flaws and slag inclusion in the root and fill passes that create spaces that could weaken the weld.
Metreyeon added that though M&M has filled multiple orders using the two units it has, many of its jobs between January and this writing have included piping configurations that are not ideal for the 1G roll out that the machine is designed for. However, M&M’s project team takes advantage of these latest tools to speed up the weld deposition rate as much as it can.
“Basically, we try to plan our fabrication out so that anytime you can use the robot in the controlled environment, you’re light years ahead in making that weld,” Metereyeon said. “The value is consistency. You have human error. They’re taking breaks, and they’ll run the wire for a minute and then get a cramp in their hand. They shut down and then fire back up. This machine is consistent. It’s constantly moving, constantly rolling. Once you hit go, you’re just driving it. The consistency there, the amperage, the travel speed—everything is set.”