Setting up a Pulse mig.

[auswelder]

What thickness material is that?

 

[auswelder]

Welds look good, but think with conventional pulse could have achieved the same.

 

[auswelder]

What is happening if you have too much stickout?

 

[matt1978]

I think from the sounds of it you need to adjust the arc length.

This can be done be turning the potentiometer on the right hand side. The factory default is that this adjusts voltage (devitation from the synergic line). Start off with the knob in the neutral (zero) position. Weld some scrap and see how far the end of the wire is off the weld pool. 1-2mm is optimium, you should hear the occasional crackle but there should be very little/zero spatter.

If you strike up at zero and it seems that the wire is burning back to the tip, this means that your arc length is too long and you need to turn the knob towards the left a couple points at a time until the wire is sitting just off the pool. If you strike up at zero and the wire is touching the pool and causes the arc to sound course and is spattering then you can turn the knob towards the right and this will increase the voltage marginally and burn the wire off more quickly therefore increasing the arc length.

if you have to reduce the arc length (turning knob towards the left excessively then this is a strong indicator that you have wire feed issues and the wire is dragging in the torch

Your stick out (the distance from the Gas shroud to the work piece should be around 20mm) the stick out should not be confused with the arc length.

Regarding hot start and crater fill you can also activate this, if you put the machine onto 4 T (where you can press the trigger and let go) in the background menu you can set the values of the hot start and crater fill as a percentage of your main welding current. The default setting is 120% for the hot start and 50% for the crater fill.

 

[matt1978]

Also, before you use TwinPulse make sure that your arc length is set correctly as described above, this is best set up in Pulse mode and not TwinPulse.

Once you are confident that the arc length and the wire feeding is fine, set it on TwinPulse and for starters, try the following settings

TwinPulse Frequency 2.5 Hz
TwinPulse Current Charge 35%
TwinPulse Current Relationship 50%

 

[matt1978]

always thought that with synergic programmed inverter machines you switch it on and weld, now I know differently

You can, but first you have to marry up the output of the machine to suit your local conditions (eg the wire, gas, welding style etc) this arc length correction knob is what allows you to do this. Once you have set the arc length you can then just turn the knob on the left up/down to suit the amps you require.

Also just to clarify....

Amps/Material Thickness/Wirefeed Speed

On the machine are all the same things, if you adjust one, the other two will adjust pro-rata. Most people use the material thickness setting to put them in the right ball park and then adjust up/down to suit.

For example, lets just say

100 amps is 3.0mm thickness and 5.0 m/min wire feed.

If you turned the amps up to 150 amps and then viewed the material thickness it would say 4.5mm and the feed rate would be 7.0mm (figures i have used are just examples not accurate)

 

[Hood]

I would say more likely just a setting up error as I would think the welder would be throwing an error code if there were an issue with a board. My experience so far of pulse Migs are if you have something set wrong such as wire type/diameter it can give awful results and it is very easy to set things wrong when you are new to them.
Below are my very fist attempts with the EWM Phoenix 330 I bought second hand, there were a few things wrong but mainly wire type and diameter but I was very disheartened at first and I know how you feel.
Try doing a factory reset of the parameters and see if that puts things back to a better place.

 

[Hood]

Check it is on AlMg, the above pic was when I was using 5356 but the welder was set to AlSi.

 

[matt1978]

If there was a problem with the machine especially a PCB the machine would be displaying a error code. In the abscence of any error code I would say any issues your encountering will be operator error or incorrect set up.

I’ve already stated that I think the liner if fitted too short and I don’t believe that the wire is feeding as good as it should.

I asked for a close up photo of the drive arrangement to check that the rollers are definately suitable for Aluminium.

I’ve also already stated that if you feel that using standard Mig will give you better results you can access this on your machine by pressing the mode button until it displays manual.

I find it difficult to spend time trying to assist you because it seems that your not taking any notice of the advice I’m giving, then go away and do your own thing and the come back on here to moan about the results.

Unfortunately as is often the case human error and lack of information/education is 99% the cause of most welding problems but the machine always gets the blame. If your going to continue to blame the equipment without trying the pointers I’ve given you to try I’m afraid I cant be motivated to continue to try and help you

 

[matt1978]

I’m sorry if you feel I’m being harsh but I would be 99.999999% sure that there’s is not a problem with the machine, I would say it’s an effect of local conditions
Eg liner, rollers, tension on the rollers etc etc.

If you feel there is too much voltage I told you how to reduce that by adjusting the knob on the right hand side.

Take a small series of pictures of the complete set up. Show me what happens when you press the mode button, by pressing it time after time it will cycle through all of the available processes from the machine. Show me close up to the roller set up with the upper pressure arms in the up position. Show me the front panel in detail. Press the button nearest the right hand knob. I can guarantee with a high level of certanty that it will something relating to this. Take your time with the photos don’t rush, the better quality they are the more chance I have to get this resolved for you

I can only tell you how the machine should be set as it was when it was built at the factory, if it’s second hand I don’t know who ever owned it before might of changed in the background menus etc. IF all else fails you can do a master reset and put all settings back to default.

 

[matt1978]

I’ve been involved in the welding industry as a time served welder and then later directly involved in the sale/demonstration of welding machines including Fronius and Lorch for 24 years.

Forgive me but I hear things like this all of the time. It’s always the machine at fault and don’t get me wrong “sometimes” the machine is to blame but the overriding majority of the time are local conditions coupled with the fact that there are no error codes and also that 24 hours previous you were semi happy with then TwinPulse results I am finding it difficult to put it on the machine at the moment

 

[matt1978]

You mentioned the liner....on any Aluminium application the back end of the liner has to sit off the front end of the rollers. You are supposed to remove the brass capillary tube from inside the Euro fitting and then run the soft/Teflon/plastic liner directly to where the rollers end.

If the capillary tube is still inside or if it’s been removed but there is a 50-75mm gap from the end of the rollers to the beginning of the liner on Aluminium it will cause problems. Guaranteed.

The front (Hot) end of the liner should run directly to the back of contact tip and often there is a brass spiral attached to the end of the liner, to stop heat from the tip deforming the end of the liner, therefore creating complete and total support for the wire from the moment the wire leaves the roller until it enters the tip. The front end of the liner should also have some sort of brass spiral fitted.

 

[Richard.]

@Lazeyjack
The Curtious thing to do considering Matt has spent a fair bit of time trying to help you would be just to do as he has asked and not second guess it.
He knows his stuff trust me.
Sort the liner so that it goes right up to the back of the rollers and post the detailed pics of the rollers and the panel as Matt has asked for.
If you don’t want to do this then that’s fine but don’t jump to conclusions saying your machine has blown a board because it hasn’t. It’s just lacking a bit of education in settings and set up that’s all.

 

[Munkul]

Jack, not being funny but if you have this big a problem and you're trying to resolve it via forum on the other side of the world... do you not have a local supplier/service centre who can come out to you and give support for them machine they sold?
re the "I'm a welder for 35 years etc" - we have fabricators at work who are SUPERB welders, some of the stuff they can do with basic equipment is fantastic... but ask them to fault find, especially with newer equipment, and they are hopeless, so I can see where Matt is coming from, lol. Did you ever sort that liner out? The one you took a photo of on page 2 of this thread? If not, then no-one can help you til you help yourself by fitting a new liner and snugging it to the feed rolls.

If you can't set it to work in manual mode then either the machine is broke, or you have a problem with computers...

 

[auswelder]

Can you just use a normal mig gun for testing purposes instead of this weld snake you are talking about. Go back to the basics, less to go wrong that way. Chuck a flow meter at the end of the nozzle to see that you are getting the correct gas flow.

Also as stated there is an issue with a guide, can see a big gap between the rollers and the gun entry point, this is a big no no.

Also check the rollers, there is an issue with these welders, the dowel pins sometimes come out and rollers cease to rotate, this may have happened on one of the rollers and causing you feed issues.

Also go back to convention pulse for testing instead of using twin pulse.

I always had the machine set for amps, try around 150A - 175A for your 3mm sheet. Then adjust the other knob (arc length or voltage) There is nominal (0) + 1 2 3 4 5 6 etc and - 1 2 3 4 5 6 etc you turn it one way it will start to crackle and the other way it will hum. Just trying to describe the way it sounds. A little bit of crackle is good

As said if there was an issue with the welder it would error code. I used these machines for 6 years, still to this day my favourite welder.

 

[matt1978]

You shouldn’t need to drill out the Euro block. Maybe there is another attachment available from Kemppi that should be used with that torch?!?

All I can tell you is that a soft liner is supposed to run directly from the rollers into the back of the torch

 

[henry Kadzielski]

Just my two cents worth. We are all harping about the gap between the rollers and the liner where the wire is 'left unsupported'. If that is the case surely there can be something done about that. I have put teflon liner tube inside the 'brass' tube to fit in these gaps on my essetti machines and also as has been stated before, protruded the teflon liner out from the euro connector to the rollers. I have played with teflon right up to the contact tip with a push pull gun only to find that the liner melts and jams the wire, when things get hot (inevitably they do), played with water cooled push pull guns to keep the heat down in the gun to keep things going, but nothing I repeat NOTHING feeds and continues to feed as reliably as Francis (Fronius TPSI 320c). That being said is it a feed issue or something else. Without an indepth look at the gap between the rollers and the liner it is very difficult to say if it is a potential problem.
Lazeyjack you are not that far from me, if you like, bring that machine down and we can try some other wire, gas and feed issues resolving. Just a thought

 

[matt1978]

I have played with teflon right up to the contact tip with a push pull gun only to find that the liner melts and jams the wire, when things get hot

That’s why there is supposed to be a brass spiral on the end of the liner that passes through pretty much all of the swan neck and up to the back of the tip. These are called Combination liners

I’d Also be checking if there is perhaps another adapter for the Weld snake that is used in lieu of the fact that Jack said that the liner from inside the torch is too big and maybe not designed to pass through the Euro Block.

I also asked for clarification that the rollers on the machine are definitely designed for Aluminium it could well be the case that they are V groove rollers for steel that are on the machine

 

[matt1978]

THE BRASS TUBE IN THE EUROBLOC and the liner is 1mm, i fail to see that this is the cause, it is now running ok, but not on synergic, pulse twin pulse ok, or as good as i can make it

Jack I can’t tell you anymore. On all machines with a Euro connection you never weld Aluminium with the Brass caprilary tube still inside. The Brass tube is there for Steel, Stainless and Flux cored wires. It is removed when using soft liners for soft wires as I have described.

The Aluminium wire will be shaved as it passes through the capillary tube. This is a fact. Not opinion. It’s the first thing that’s removed when switching out hard wires for soft wires.

Machines like yours and our Lorch originals weld Aluminium applications all over the world, Catermarans in Australia, passenger trains in Europe etc etc and every single machine has the capillary tube removed and the soft liner passed through to the rollers. I’m sorry that this is not what you want to hear.

In my opinion the TwinPulse results you showed could be greatly improved also, but Pulse should always be your starting point.

I was in Adelaide, Australia this exact time last year promoting the Lorch brand and providing product training for numerous welding distributors All of which had previously sold the Cigweld 320/400/500 SP machines.

I wish you the best for the future and hope you get your issues resolved.

Maybe take up Henry’s kind offer of some local assistance.

 

[Hood]

Matt, on the EWM's you still put a brass tube in but it is thinner walled from the standard one and allows for a teflon liner, see pic. Maybe they have a bigger distance than the lorch and thus it is needed.


Edit, BTW I am not meaning that the OP's welder is supposed to be like that, I was just curious as to why EWM use a guide tube.