In its stand, The Lincoln Electric Co., which is based in Cleveland, demonstrated its ability to integrate the operations of computer-controlled welding equipment across seven distinct industry sectors.

Lincoln Electric showed its ability to use proprietary computer software to pull together common data from such diverse welding operations as those used for pipe mills, cross-country pipelines and pipe used in chemical and food processing plants, and for welding processes used in heavy industry, shipbuilding, the automotive industry, and maintenance and repair operations for a variety of industries.

While it is improbable data from so many different industries ever would be needed by one company, Lincoln Electric made the point that its software is flexible and comprehensive enough to monitor many robots used for automated operations at the same time.

Steven R. Sumner, vice president of sales for Lincoln Electric Europe S.L., which is based in Barcelona, Spain, said the software could provide full production monitoring and data for many variables in the welding process across a wide number of individual robotic installations.

The data that can be tracked includes weld time, heat and power levels, and wire-feed speed, among many others, and the software can be programmed to provide alerts when defined factors are out of pre-set bounds. Such alerts can be delivered in many ways, including email or text messages that can be delivered to personal communications devices such as cell phones.

The processes monitored included proprietary surface tension transfer technology, which Sumner said have been adopted for use on welding pipeline products of various diameters. The technology originally was developed for welding sheet metal.

Lincoln Electric welded steel alloys with high nickel content and demonstrated the uses of pulse welding for aluminum, which Sumner claims can be twice as fast as traditional welding methods for aluminum while requiring less training for welders.

Further information on the software system is available at Lincoln Electric Europe's Internet page at www.lincolnelectriceurope.com