Welding systems reside at the core of the modern industrial age. From massive automobile assembly operations to automated manufacturing environments, these systems facilitate joining in ever more complicated manufacturing operations. Hot or cold wire welding processes a wire or electrode being heated (e.g., via current) and received by a puddle created by a main heat source (e.g., plasma arc, tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, metal inert gas (MIG) welding, flux core, laser, among others).
Additionally, welding may involve, raising, cladding, building up, filling, hard facing, overlaying, joining, and other welding applications. When confronted with a workpiece having a curved surface, an orbital welding processes may be used to rotate the welding head to apply a weld to the curved surface. The most common examples, where orbital welding is used, is the welding of pipe. Pipe welding may include thin wall application where the welding head is rotated about the other surface two piece ends being joined together, alternatively, pipe welding may include deep grove geometries where the welding electrode extends into a grove formed between the two pipes being joined to lay down successive beads of weld material to fill the grove the join the thick walled pipes. Orbital welding systems may include a welding head that is mounted on a guide track or a fixture that clamps or is otherwise supported on the workpiece and rotated to supply a weld. With orbital welding often involves limited visibility of a welding zone with lead cameras and/or trailing cameras.
Considering the use of TIG welding, TIG welding may be used in various welding operations including the orbital welding and non-orbital welding, manual welding or automated welding operations. TIG welding employs a tungsten electrode. A number of standard electrode sizes are used ranging from 0.020″ to 5/32″ with the 1/16″ and 3/32″ being the most commonly used electrode diameters. To establish stable arc, a user will adjust current/voltage amplitude, duration, frequency amperage and in alternating current (AC) welding the ratio of positive to negative pulse to tune the arc based on the electrode being used. A key stage in TIG welding is the initiation of the arc. Tuning the multiple parameters identified above for arc initiation is difficult because of the number of variables available to the user.