Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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System with a Welding Apparatus
The invention relates to a system witl1 a welder according to the features given in the
preamble of claim 1.
An electrowelder of the kind referred to is disclosed in IJ.S. Patent 5,130,518 and is
used especially for the electrowelding of sleeves or fittings onto pipes of thermoplastic
material. The welder makes it possible to record the welding parameters, and therecord of the welding performed can be printed out, if necessary, and also data can be
entered into a computer, especially a personal computer or laptop. The welder
contains a computer-supported command system for the fully automatic operation and
control of the welding process. When a pipeline is laid a great number of sleeves,
fittings and the like are welded and the determination and recording of the weld data,
as well as correlation with a particular weld, call for considerable work. There are
applications in which these data do not suffice for precise identification. The
correlation of the data can very soon create problems due to inaccurate entries. The
management and recording of the great amounts of data is complicated and all toosoon the data are no longer available in practice with the desired reliability for check-
ups and for any accurate correlation with the fitting, sleeve or the like.
The invention therefore is addressed to the problem of improving the system with the
welder of the kind described, to the effect that the above-mentioned disadvantages will
be avoided and a reliably operating, precise identification of the recorded weld will be
made possible. The system is to combine simplicity of operation while assuring adefinite correlation and location of the individual welds performed. The effort
involved in the storage and processing of the data is to be reduced to a minimum. The
data are to permit an unequivocal correlation and location of the fittings, sleeves or the
like even over a long period of 10 and more years.
The solution of this problem is accomplished by the features stated in claim 1.
CA 02222710 1997-12-22
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The system of the invention is characterized by functional construction and assures the
correlation of the geographical data of the particular weld. Particularly the welding
and processing data and/or job number are supplemented by the geographical
coordinates, preferably the longitude and latitude. The job number defines, according
to set criteria, especially a job site or a project in which the welding of pipelines,
fittings, couplings or the like is performed with the electrowelder. ~ user of the
welder can enter this job number into the welder in addition to the data produced
during the welding process, preferably by means of numerical or alphanumerical input,
or a bar code or the like. The documentation of the welds is considerably improved on
account of the geographical coordinates, so that even after long periods of time a
precise identification and correlation of the recorded data and heightened reliability are
achieved. It is useful to associate the welder with an orientation system, which will be
preferably in the form of a satellite locating system and referred to as a global
positioning system (GPS). A receiver is associated with the welder, by means of
which especially the signals of the satellite are received and from them the position on
the surface of the earth is computed. From the data the degrees of longitude andlatitude are calculated, and it is also useful to deterrnine the elevation above sea level
and the time of day. The position data thus obtained are recorded and combined with
the data or parameters required for the particular weld, and recorded on a data storage
medium.
In the scope of the invention, the orientation system can be combined, either inaddition to or as an alternative to the satellite locating system, with a local locating
system, for traffic control for example, or it can be configured as a local locating
system. Moreover, the positioning system can be fed other data, such as especially
street maps or pipe laying plans, and corrected as necessary in order to assure a precise
position identification or location of the welder. It is desirable to process and store the
said data, that is, the weld data as well as the location data, in a conl~ul~l. For
evaluation, these data are picked up and stored preferably by means of a transfer unit.
The data can thus be easily accessed at the job site by means of the transfer unit, and
after the transfer unit has been brought to a documentation center or computer center
CA 02222710 1997-12-22
or office it can there be read into a computer and further processed in the required
manner.
Further developments and special embodiments of the invention are given in the
subordinate claims and in the following description of an embodiment.
The invention will now be explained with the aid of a special embodiment withoutlimiting the invention thereto.
The drawing shows schematically, as a block diagram, an electrowelding ~palalus 1
which contains the known electronic unit 2 with the control and power electronics for
electrowelding, wherein the electrical connection is provided by means of a welding
cable 3. By means of a welder 1 of this kind, welded joints can be made, mainly in
piping systems of thermoplastic material, l~elw~ell fittings or coupl;ngs and the plastic
pipe in piping systems, the power being supplied through the welding cable 3.
Furtherrnore, with such welders, welds can be made on plastic boards or plastic films,
for example for sealing building walls or waste dumps. For the lecol~lhlg of therelevant welding data, such as tempel~lule, type designation, weld current, voltage,
welding time etc., the welder 2 contains the detection unit 4 and/or a reading unit 5, as
well as a memory 6. Expediently, the reading unit 5, along with the plug or contacts
7, is disposed at the end portion of the welding cable 3, so as to be able to read the
data provided on recording means for the fittings, coupling or the like. The data
recording means affixed to the fitting or the like is, in the scope of the invention, in
the form of a bar code, a magnetic card, a microchip, or the like. The parameters
characterizing the welding process are held ready in the memory 6 and, when
necessary. can be issued or accessed through a data terminal 8, such as a parallel
interface, to a modem or the like.
A receiver 10 is also associated with the welder 2, and is best integrated into the
welder housing with the other electronic components. The receiver 10 is part of a
positioning system, preferably the global positioning system (GPS) which permits an
CA 02222710 1997-12-22
exact location and azimuth of an object, making use of orbiting satellites. The signals
of the satellites and/or special recei- ers and transmitters on the surface of the earth are
received by means of an antenna 12 and in the receiver 10 the exact position of the
weld and/or of the welder 2 on the earth's surface is determined. Above all, thelatitude and longitude, but also the elevation above sea level and the time, aredetermined and stored. The data obtained with the receiver 10 are fed to the memory
6 and associated with the data on the welding process. The weld-specific data, stored
preferably under a job number, are thus supplemented at least with the geographic
coordinates.
In one useful embodiment. the welder 2 contains a data transmission system 14 bymeans of which additional data, such as especially street maps, can be loaded.
Preferably a PCM data tr~n~mi.~.~ion system is used. This data transmission system
additionally, or alternatively, permits the entry of coordinates and/or collecliv~ values,
and data in this regard are fed to the memory and/or computer 6. The determination
of position can be made also by means of the transmission unit 14 alone, within the
scope of the invention.
The data held ready in the computer and/or memory 6, namely the weld data as well as
the position data, can be transmitted if necessary through the data terminal 8 to a
tr~n.cfer unit 16. The transfer takes place most simply by means of a cable 18 that can
be connected to it if necessary, but also by means of a direct plug-in connection or
even a wireless connection. The important thing is tl1at the said data are stored
temporarily by means of the transfer unit and can be transported from the welder to
another computer or the like. The transfer unit 16 can best contain a writable and if
necessary erasable storage medium, which can be made especially in a non-volatile
forrn, examples being a magnetic tape, a magnetic diskette, or digital storage
components. Thus, different welders at different worksites can easily access therele~ant welding data as ~ell as position data from the welder itself, and be transmitted
to a central computer or to the central management and control.
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'' ' CA 02222710 1997-12-22
It is expedient furthermore to connect a display or indicator unit 20, preferably on the
data tr~n.~mi~sion unit 14. This display unit 20, which is in the form of a video tube,
LCD display or the like, perrnits displaying the position of the welded joint, preferably
in conjunction with city maps, site plans or the like. Furthermore, the display unit 20
is configured according to the invention such that position data can be read and can be
entered through the receiver 10 into the memory or computer 6, and ultimately
associated with the weld data. Thus the exact position of the welder and/or of the
fittings, couplings or the like can easily be rendered visible. Moreover, in an
especially expedient manner the display unit makes possible a correction or defined
entry of the position data. By means of the display unit it is possible with little
difficulty to adjust the orientation data and geographic coordinates obtained with the
receiver and the antenna 12.
In a special embodiment a mapping unit 22 is provided, which can be expediently
connected to the welder 1 through the data tr~n.~mi~sion unit 14. This mapping unit 22
easily perrnits the loading or entry of city maps, pipe laying plans or the like, which
can be displayed in the display unit 20.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the antenna 12' is coupled with the welding
cable 3. Preferably the anterma 12' as well as the plug 7 is disposed at the end of the
welding cable 3. If the weld fitting or the like is disposed at a great distance from the
welder, that is, if the welding cable has a relatively great length, then the antenna 12'
is likewise in the direct vicinity of the fitting so that a very precise determination of
position is assured
Even if the integration of the receiver 10 into the welder 1 has proven desirable in
certain cases, the receiver 10' can optionally be arranged as a module outside of the
welder 1, especially as an external module, the connection to the welder 1 being made
through a cable, plug or the like.
