Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
( 1156728 (
593.011 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The field of the present invention relates to arc welding and to
support and adjustment of the welding electrode as it contacts the material
which is being welded. The use of holding arms for welding electrodes permits
the welder to remain away from the heat and the associated arcing and
sputtering of fJying metal. When the operator is further away from the welding
piece he is able to take less safety precautions regarding clothing and, therefore,
may more readily move to another job or quickly leave the welding site. One of
the principal drawbacks of the prior art welder holding arms is its lack of
directivity with regard to the welding electrode. That is, while the electrode can
be moved in the horizontal and vertical direction, the prior art does not provide
for changing the angle of the electrode of the welder with respect to the
workpiece without considerable lateral or vertical movement of the hand
controls while maintaining the same point of contact of the electrode with the
work piece.
An example of the prior art welder holding equipment is shown in
the Patent No. 3,046,387 to Matt Kiilunen wherein an adjustable bracket is
frictionally secured to a vertically disposed member. The bracket has two
parallel bars shown as 72 and 74 in Figure 2 of the '387 patent. The bracket
further has pivot points on each end of the parallel bars shown as 82, 84, 86
and 88. These plvot points are used to allow the one end fo the bracket
containing the electrode holding means, generally shown as 100, to move
vertically when a downward pressure is put on the other end of the bracket at the
weighted section 94. Lateral movement of the bracket means is provided by the
rollers 42, 44, 46 and 48 on the horizontal section 50 which section is the
connecting means between the vertically disposed member 12 and the bracket
parallel bars 72 and 74. As seen from the figures, the electrode holding means
can be moved vertically or laterally and may be controlled by the operator from
the opposite end of the bracket bars.
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~ 15672~
593.011 Although the flexibility in the vertical direction and in the lateral
direction is shown by the prior art, there is disclosed no means or method of
adjusting the angle that the electrode makes with the piece to be welded. In
other words while the electrode may be moved up and down and side to side the
angle it makes with the piece to be welded cannot change and, therefore, the
welded piece itself must be continuously moved in order to change the angle of
the welding process.
All materials to be welded do not have surfaces which continue in
a straight line or which are susceptible to being followed by movement in the
vertical direction or in the lateral direction alone. That is, some of the material
contains corners and edges which require that the electrode be moved to a
position not as easily available in the prior art. Of course, a hand-held electrode
which could be manipulated to fit any position is well known in the art, however,
the advantages of the holder arm of the prior art are negated when the operator
must come in such close contact with the welding.
The present invention retains the prior art advantages of
remoteness from the welding process and in addition permits angular adjustment
of the electrode with respect to the workpiece with a minimum lateral or
vertical movement of the hand controls. This provides a more uniform flow and
control of welding material as well as the ability to cope with uneven angles ofthe workpiece.
1 156728
593.011 SUMIAARY OF THE INVENTION
The welding electrode holder of the present invention has a
vertically disposed mounting member and a horizontal member slidably attached
frictionally at one end to the vertically disposed mounting member and rotatably
attached at the other end to a bracket. The bracket has a pair of parallelogram
- shaped frames with one frame affixed adjacent to and vertically offset from the
other frame such that the top of the one frame is common to and an extension of
the bottom of the other frame, and one side of one frame is common to and an
extension of one side of the other frame. Hinges are located at each of the
corners of each of the two parallelogram shaped frames which together form the
bracket. The hinges allow the two frames to form substantially all possible
shapes while still retaining the parallelogram shape.
The electrode is attached to the bracket and forms one end
thereof. The other end of the bracket contains a handle which is used to move
the bracket by changing the angles of the parallelograms and thereby changing
the angle of the electrode. The handle is also used to move the electrode in the
vertical and transverse direction.
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I 15~728
593.011 The present invention uses a ball joint located on the one end of
the horizontal member which ball joint supports the bracket. This ball joint
allows the bracket to be rotated about the ball joint without affecting the
movement of the horizontal member or the vertically disposed mounting
member. The present invention allows for electrode movement in the transverse
direction not only by permitting a limited amount of transverse movement via
the ball joint but also by permitting the horizontal member to be retained and
slidably supported next to the vertically disposed mounting member. The
horizontal member is mounted to the vertical member by means of a collar which
allows the horizontal member to slide back and forth and may be affixed or
tightened by any known means. Furthermore, the collar construction allows for
the rotation of the bracket and horizontal member about the vertical member by
having its vertical member retaining portion rotatably engaged therewith to
facilitate the pivoting of the entire structure about the vertical member.
The present invention retains all of the advantages of the prior art
electrode arm holders but provides an added dimension of flexibility to the
positioning of the electrode by use of its parallelogram offset structure for the
bracket in combination with the use of a ball joint to retain the entire bracket on
the horizontal member. The handle structure of the present invention is located
at the end of the bracket opposite the electrode structure and is affixed in such a
manner as to operate with the use of both an up and down motion in order to
move the electrode in a vertical plane. This handle structure facilitates the
movement of the electrode in a precise manner and further permits a pivoting
angular movement of the handle to force the parallelogram structure of the
bracket to change angles to accommodate the angular position of the handle and,
therefore, changes the angular position of the electrode with respect to the
workpiece.
l 1S6728
593.011 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 shows a top view of the welding electrode holder and
support of the present invention;
Figure 2 shows a side view of the electrode holder of the present
invention;
Fi~ure 3 shows a flexed view of the holder of Figure 2;
Figure 4 shows the detail of the ball joint construction of the
holder on the support; and
Fi~ure 5 shows the handle arrangement for changing the position
of the electrode.
Figure 6 is a fragmentary section taken in the direction of
arrows 6-6 of Fig. 2 but showing frame section and electrode tilted at an acute
angle.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The welding electrode holding structure 10 of the present
invention is detailed in the top view of Figure 1 and the side view of Figure 2
wherein the welder holder comprises a frame section 11 holding an electrode 12
which electrode is fed by wire feed 13. The frame section 11 is supported on a
horizontal member 14 which is, in turn, supported on the base structure 15 by a
vertical extending post l6. The horizontal member 14 is connected to the
vertical post 16 by means of a two-way adjustable collar 18 which allows the
horizontal member 14 to slide back and forth to move the frame member 11 as
shown in Figure 1, as well as adjustable to allow the entire structure including
the horizontal member to slide vertically upon the post 16.
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1 1S6728
593.011 A ball joint 20 rotatably holds the frame structure 11 on the
horizontal member 14. The frame member 11 comprises frame members 22,
24,26, 28 and handle member 29 which, when combined with the electrode 12 as
one end, form two vertically offset parallelogram structures with frame
members 22 and 28 having a portion thereof as part of both parallelogram
structures. The bottom 22 of one section is common to and extension of the
top 22 of the other section. One side 28 of one section is common to and an
extension of one side 28 of the other section.
A series of hinges 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42 and 44 are located at each
corner of the two parallelogram shaped structures. All of the hinges are of the
pin type with the hinges 32, 34, 36 and 38 being essentially the same in that each
have a hinge pin located at the intersectior~ point of a vertical member and a
horizontal member. The hinge pin connection at 40 differs only in that the framemember 22 and 28 extend into both parallelogram sections, thus requiring a hingepin connection with crossing members 22 and 28. Likewise, hinge section 42
differs In that section 24 extends beyond the intersection with member 28, thus
requiring a hinge pin connection similar to that of 40. While the hinge pin
connection of 44 is the same as the remaining cor~ r sections 32, 34, 36 and 38,the hinge pin is replaced by a two-piece handle 46.
The handle which is used to control the angular position of the
electrode 12 by means of changing the shape of the parallelogram structures is
shown in conjunction with Figure 5. The handle comprises a horizontal section 48which acts as a hinge pin, the handle frame member 29, and two vertical
sections S0 which are used to allow simplified manual control of the positioningof the electrode. Section 48 projects through and is fixed to handle frame
member 29. That is, when the handles are rotated forward or backward as
illustrated in Figure 3, the parallelogram structure changes shape and the
electrode 12 changes the angle that it makes with the workpiece W, Figure 3.
The angle of electrode 12 is always the same as the angle of inclination of handle
member 29.
. 1 1516728
593.011 To change the angle of the electrode 12 from upri~ht in Figure 2,
handle members 50 are manually rotated causing rotation of handle member 29
to the position shown in Figure 3 relative to workpiece W. The parallelogram
frames maintain the electrode 12 at all times parallel to handle member 29.
Typically, the parallelogram sections comprise one-inch by two-
inch tubular aluminum channel sections which are appropriately cut and fitted
for the particular hinge connections. Figure 4 shows the modification to the
channel section 24 in order to encompass the ball 52 of the ball joint section 20.
Because of the hollow center of the tubular aluminum section, in order to obtainmaximum frictional rotation of the frame section 11 about the ball 52, a small
overlapping precut section 54 is fitted over the top of the section 24 and held
there by a series of screws 56. This allows for a complete surface grip on the
ball 52 to provide for stability and a substantially continuous surface over which
the frame may rotate.
Aside from the change in the angular inclination of electrode 12
permitted by the parallelogram structure of frame 11 and the handle 46 as shown
in Figure 3, the various other degrees of freedom and movement permitted by
the welder holder 10 are shown in phantom in Figure 1 with the two crossed
phantom frame structures illustrating the rotation of the frame 11 on the ball
joint 20 and the parallel frame structure in phantom, indicating the freedom of
the horizontal member 14 to slide in the collar 18. Two other degrees of
freedom are not illustrated in the phantom drawings, but are permitted because
of the freedom of the collar 18 to rotate about the vertical post 16 and to slide
up and down the post. The movement associated with the horizontal structure 14
and the vertical post 16 in conjunction with the collar 18 requires that the collar
normally be loosened prior to movement or be in such a loosened condition that
care must be taken in handling the frame structure 11 so as not to slide the
structure up or down the post 16 or horizontally when it is not desired to do so.
For example, the force necessary to lift the frame 11 at the handle 46 in order to
lower the tip of the electrode 12 may cause movement of the entire frame
structure 11 down the vertical post 16 if the collar 18 is not suitably secured to
the post 16.
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1 ~5B728
593.011 As shown in dash lines in Fig. 2, frame section 11 may be a~usted
in a vertical plane about ball joint ~2. Members 22, 24 and 26 are inclined
downwardly at an acute angle in order to lower electrode 12. If said electrode is
to be upright as lowered, then handle 50 is rotated counterclockwise until said
electrode is in an upright position as shown.
Frame section 11 may also be tilted laterally upon ball support 52
to an acute angle causing a corresponding lateral tilting of electrode 12, as inFig. 6.
It may be appreciated that many changes and modifications may
be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Such modifications may include the use of a different material for the frame
structure or the use of a different handle structure or a different arrangement of
the attachment of the frame structure to a base support structure.
One of the most important features of this invention is the ability
to change the angle of the electrode with none or very little lateral or vertical
rnovement of the handles, while maintaining the same point of contact of the
electrode with the workpiece.
The drawings illustrate an electrode holder or gun used for feeding
continuolls electrodes from a large coil or other type of package. This could bereplaced with a stick electrode holder, allowing the manipulator to be used withstick electrodes.
