Image Industries (www.imageindustries.com) has introduced a new line of digital arc stud welding equipment — Smart Weld — that the company said provides advanced data management for statistical process control (SPC) documentation.

Smart Weld's documentation feature is designed to serve as a reinforcement tool for maintaining quality control measures. By reporting information, such as date and time, the weld tool used (1 through 4 option), the welding mode used, weld parameters requested (time and current), and actual weld results (time, current, and voltage), users can determine whether quality standards are being consistently upheld with every weld. SPC limits also can be entered and reported by Smart Weld.

Users determine optimal weld settings, then enter upper and lower SPC limits based on real world variations. If the weld falls outside of the set limits, the quality control documentation feature alerts the operator.

Once the weld is complete, the operator can print out a report of the weld parameters and evaluate the effectiveness of the weld. That information is output in ASCII format, so that it can be used by a variety of common peripherals, including printers, personal computers, palm-style devices and other data-storage devices connected to Smart Weld's data port with a standard connector.