Plasma brings welding under control
Plasma welding is well suited to small diameter, precision or miniature applications.
William Hughes is applying the benefits of innovative plasma welding processes in the manufacture of wire products for consumer goods and car parts.
Plasma welding is a process that brings better control to the arc welding process in lower current ranges, making it well suited to small diameter, precision or miniature applications. It also offers long electrode life for high production requirements.
Plasma welding was introduced at the company’s Stalbridge, Dorset facility two years ago. Its a semi-automatic process that is exploited by William Hughes to join round phosphor bronze or stainless steel wire making 2D or 3D forms for a growing number of customers keen to enjoy the benefits of this innovative welding technique. Hexagonal wire can also be processed if required. The process is automated to obtain consistency.
At present William Hughes makes a range of different diameter products using this process. Almost any diameter (including very small sizes) can be accommodated to meet customer specifications– only a change of clamping plates is needed. In terms of wire diameter, this is typically 0.75 or 0.9mm, although any diameter between 0.3 and 2.0mm are not uncommon.
Current applications for products manufactured by William Hughes using plasma welding processes include parts for shower filter systems and kettles. These have conductive properties and are typically phosphor bronze wire forms. For the kettle applications, the wire is a ‘sacrificial’ item that is used to heat up two plastic ring halves so they fuse together as part of a customer-patented process. The resulting ‘donut’ shape is impossible to produce by other methods such as moulding because there is no way of retrieving the central core after the plastic has set.
Another application sees stainless steel wire joined by plasma welding to create locking mechanisms used by a prestige car manufacturer on a range of its models.
In line with other production operations at this ISO9001-accredited company, a rigorous failure test mechanism is in place at William Hughes to ensure that high quality plasma-welded parts are always supplied. On a sample basis, wire components are subjected to a stress test to confirm the required weld strength has been attained.
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