Tawers Super Active Wire Feed Process, or S-AWP for short, is the name of the low-spatter, high-speed welding process from Panasonic Robot & Welding, a division of Panasonic Industry Europe.

This welding process combines two aspects which, according to the company, previously seemed impossible to combine.

The first key aspect is the critical current limit. S-AWP is able to achieve a stable short arc above the critical current; the transition arc is usually located in this current range. The second aspect is humping. S-AWP prevents the arc from humping even during high-speed welding.

Thanks to a pendulum wire feed combined with a continuously monitored, modified current curve that controls the material transfer during the entire short arc current transfer cycle, welding spatter and material deformation can be reduced to a minimum. This results in clean weld seams, especially when processing very thin materials. This is made possible by a lower heat input and a higher material input in the welding process. The number of short circuits during material transfer during welding has been significantly increased. This reduces droplet size and spatter. In addition, disturbances caused by downstream vibrations in the weld pool are almost completely eliminated. A 200 W wire feed motor and a direct drive for the wire feed rollers ensure precise feed. The oscillation frequency can exceed 150 movements per second.

The newly developed LA1800G3 multi-purpose robot is designed for handling tools, components and TIG welding equipment. © Panasonic Industry

Panasonic Industry Europe will also be presenting the newly developed LA1800G3 multi-purpose robot. With a maximum payload of 26 kg and a working range of up to 1.801 m, the articulated arm robot is designed for handling tools, components and TIG welding equipment. Using the cooperation function, the movements of both robots can be synchronized when combining the LA-1800G3 with a welding robot from Panasonic Industry Europe. This means that only the position of the component needs to be programmed during welding and the relative position of the welding torch to the component is automatically maintained. Programming the weld seam remains as simple as with a fixed component.

The new LA-1800G3 can also be used to automatically load and unload components to enable more cost-effective and faster production. The G3 controller also enables cooperative operation with the Panasonic TM / TL-G3 series welding robots.

According to documents from Panasonic Industry Europe / ag