Sub Arc Welding Column Boom Manipulators

Welding manipulators is often a confusing term when referring to welding positioning equipment. In North America a welding manipulator is a column with a boom arm often used to hold sub arc welding heads and flux over a rotating tank or vessel. The boom is most often variable speed in the reach and the column provides constant speed lift of the cantilevered boom arm to the height needed for welding the part. The picture on the left shows a standard manipulator ready to be used with a welding positioners which is a common mix of weld positioning equipment working together to position a part prior to welding most often in the flat position for high quality welds with good penetration and weld bead appearance.

In this post we will explain the how the boom and column weld manipulators are used in concert with other pieces of weld position equipment. The key factors to keep in mind when you are looking at using a manipulator. First thing is how much weight will you need to support? The other this is how much height or lift will you need to position the weld head over the part you plan on welding. Now you need to factor in how much reach you will need to get the welding equipment over the location on the part such as a vessel. A 10' vessel rotating beneath the column and boom will need to be at least 12' in height to be sure you have enough room for the weld head and welding torch. Often times other equipment is needed on the boom, such as a seam tracker and sub arc flux recovery hopper. All of the weight has to be factored to ensure you have a rigid arm holding the equipment so it does not move or bounce while welding.

Manipulators come in all sizes from as small as a 2'X2' all the way up to 30'X30' and even larger. Some of the column and booms are powered reach, some and manual hand crank reach. Most units are power elevation but a few are counter balanced hand crank design. These are most often the smaller size units where just a torch or welding feeder is mounted on the end of the boom gantry arm. The weight mounted on the end of the boom arm can be as little as 100 lbs and up to over 2000 lbs with the boom arm fully extended. The ones we suggest are made in North America by Jetline, Irco, Koike Aronson, Ransome, Preston-Eastin and Pandjiris. We strongly suggest you buy a manipulator that has a fall safe design. This will help prevent the boom from crashing to the floor if the chain breaks. This can be deadly to welders who maybe near or under the boom arm when it falls. All domestic built units since the 60s have this feature as a standard. Some of the import units do not always have this feature. Keep this in mind if you plan on buying a larger weld manipulator, safety is always the most important thing to keep in mind when buying or renting a column boom manipulator.

This is just a quick over view of what to look for when you are needing a welding manipulator. We often suggest Weld Plus Inc. since they carry both new and used column boom manipulators. They also can outfit any size manipulator with a complete submerged arc welding package or automated tig welding system. If you need information on how to use this piece of welding positioning equipment call them for more information. They have friendly high qualified technicians to help advise you on the proper size manipulator for your welding application. Let them do some work for you in choosing the proper equipment for your industrial fabrication needs.

Table or Welding Floor Turntables

Welding floor turntables range from table top models of 100 lbs to over 100 ton floor models. Even larger capacities and special requirements are manufactured to suit specific weld fabrication and other manufacturing requirements.

Most turntables are variable speed in both clock wise and counter clock wise direction. Tables most often have 4 slots cut into the table to allow tooling and fixtures to be mounted to the table's face. We are explaining here standard manual or semi automatic welding turntables. In a upcoming blog entry we will explain robot indexing tables and sweep tables for robotic welding applications. Standard Welding Floor Turntables Examples



Welding turntables do not tilt and work much like a lazy susan always rotating in the horizontal plain. The part is most often in the vertical plain and rotated while the welding torch is mounted in position by a weld head director or sub arc column boom manipulator. This allows the part to rotate for continuous welding application such as hard facing or cladding. Rapol makes some nice small size turntables


One thing to keep in mind is turntables most often have the same rating as a welding positioner using the center of gravity of either 6" or 12" from the center of the table out and away. Why this maybe important is if you are rotating a part where the weight of the part is not concentric. If you are dealing with a offset load this can cause the table to deflect or perhaps not rotate at a even speed. Most turntable face plates are designed around the suggested capacity rating of the turntable. Un-like a tilting turntable a welding floor turntable can handle more weight based on table size, but can only rotate in the horizontal position. Larger tables can be used but they either have to be thicker or use out rigger roller supports to keep the tables deflection to a minimum.

The primary function of a floor turntable is to allow the welder or operator to rotate the work piece through out 360o reposition for inspection or welding positioning. Welding turn tables can be used for polishing, painting and shot blasting. The floor turntable can also be used for different applications other than welding such as high speed turntables for metal spray coating applications in either hand held or interpreted with a spray gun holding apparatus, such as a robot. Preston - Eastin is a major manufacture of high speed turntables for non welding applications.

One growth area in recent years do to energy demands has been cladding of oil valves were the turntables are used in conjunction with a bore welder or manipulator set up to weld then index up or over. The floor turntable is placed below floor level in a pit with the face plate level to the ground. The valves are attached to the floor turntable were they are first preheated on Key Plant's specialist design slip ring assembly, incorporated into the design of our Cladding Turntables then cladded internally while the table is rotated beneath the part being weld.

It is always a good idea to ask your knowledgeable welding positioning technician for some help in sizing the proper size welding turntable. Let them know if you plan to welding while turning or if you just want to rotate in between welding. This is important for speeds and costs. We recommend North American built equipment do to quality, price and future parts availability. Ask your supplier, what country was this product made in and what is the warranty and parts lead time if needed. Bode in the UK is a quality builder of floor turntables for welding.

Tilt Table Bench Top Positioners

Welding around any kind of circular pipe or turning is a tough. Making a smooth fillet weld in the horizontal position, you either have to walk around the work bench, keeping constant arc length if you wish to make a continuous air tight weld. Work like this may be OK if you just need only a few parts welded. Larger batch production runs need positioning devices for higher productivity. The solution is to rotate the work piece with a rotating welding positioners, such as a version called a table or benchtop positioner for small cylindrical parts such as pipe and tubing using a gripper chuck. Bench Top Positioners Source Domestic Built

Welding fabricators need to weld tubing and pipe sections with small jobs and higher production jobs. Tube to elbow, pipe to pipe, and pipe or a flange, all are common welding operations in a fabricating environment. Circular piece like tubes and pipe can be a difficult when rotating. A example, say you want to weld a piece of pipe to a flange. First you tack the two pieces together and clamping the assembly to your work table. To make a weld fillet smooth looking in the horizontal position, you have to move around the welding table, trying to maintain a constant arc length if you want to make a quality weld. One solution to this dilemma is to rotate the work piece past the welding arc with a rotating welding positioner, such as a small to medium-size benchtop machine. Fixed Base and tilt welding table bench top positioners are the answer. Also called Table Rotary Welding Positioners.


Tilting positioners use different tilt options, some use hand wheel for infinite degree of tilt from flat to 90 degrees. Others used fixed set positions of angle, other use a thumb screw nut to allow the tilt positioner a wider range of angles, hand wheel design is the best version on the market today. Of all the defined welding positions, the flat position is the best way to provide the fastest travel speed, highest deposition rate, and best penetration while giving best weld appearance .

If you set your pipe and flange assembly to the welding positioner table, tilt to 45 degrees, you are presenting the joint in the flat welding position. When joining the two pieces of pipe end to end, tilting the positioner to 90 degrees to attain that same flat welding position. This is the most common way pipe sections are joined together with a secondary support.

Benchtop welding positioners typically are rated by the weight they can handle based on center of gravity. The most common sizes are 100, 200, and 250 pound welding table sized positioners. The center of gravity ratings are based on the work piece being centered and balanced on the positioner table. Work weight load is the weldment parts plus fixture used to secure the weldment to the positioner's table or to the tooling or chuck..

Elbow non concentric out of balance loads do not pose a problem when the welding table is in the flat or horizontal position. When a unbalanced load is tilted on a positioner and it speeds up or slows down as the overhung load goes through the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock position the positioner is under torqued or to small for your job or part. Off set parts often are cause stress on the gear box and motor do to lack or needed torque to maintain constant rotation speed. Securing a weight directly opposite the offending clamp can eliminate this off set load condition, but adds weight and possible problems.

Long parts though perfectly balanced, can cause a problem when the positioner is tilted. Often exceeding the positioners rated center of gravity. This creates an overhung load that can place a severe stress on the positioner's shaft bearings. Most pipe fabricators use some sort of steady rest or pipe roller stand to support the outboard end, such as a pipe stand with a dual roller head.

Benchtop positioners are powered by geared motors that usually drive the table's shaft via a secondary rotation gear or sometimes on cheaper models a drive belt. Most all bench top welding positioners have forward and reverse variable speed rotation, plus foot control. Some foot petals are on/off others are variable speed design.

Securing small diameter tubes and pipe in a spin lock chucks are the best based on weight and lower center of gravity. If you intend to weld a variety of ongoing jobs with parts with different diameters, spin lock chucks allow you easy self centering of the work piece on the positioner's table. Lathe chucks or scroll design chucks are less expensive but push out the center of gravity do to their size, spin lock chucks have both OD and ID reversible jaws.

Some code welding jobs require argon inert gas back back purging. Inert gas purging from the back side of the arc prevents contamination of the root bead during the welding process. This requirement usually is encountered in mig or tig of stainless steel and other alloys. Some positioner manufacturers offer the option of a hollow table shaft with a means of connecting it to an inert gas supply to facilitate purging. Some table top designs use a large through hole to bring a offset load closer to the chuck or positioner's table center of gravity.

If you are considering a bench top positioner, be sure it has an a grounding lug system for return welding current to your welding machine. A capacity of 250 amps or most often needed and a standard on domestic produced positioners. Be sure to attach the ground lead of your welding machine to the stud on the side of the positioner before you start any welding. Welding on a positioner table that is simply bolted to a grounded steel bench will cause welding current to flow through the machine.

Some welders have devised ways to automate entire welding processes using a benchtop positioner as the centerpiece of their automated welding system. When designed and assembled correctly, rack-mounted torches, mounted to the turntable, and micro switches or timing devices can lead to a welding system that requires only loading of the part and pressing a start switch. This requires a less skilled operator, not a skilled welder saving you labor costs. This is a example of a welding automation circle welder using a torch stand and a bench top positioner much like a simple welding lathe.

Check to see if your bench top positioner has a hand wheel tilt feature, ask is it built in the USA. Some positioners are private labeled and imported from China or Japan. If the positioner breaks how quickly can you get parts? Be sure to ask about the warranty and where you can buy parts if needed. Ask if the positioner's control can be upgraded if you wish to automate your welding application. Some of the once domestic produced table positioners are now made over seas. Brand like Jetline, Pandjiris, MBC and MK are still manufactured right here in the USA and offer durability at a affordable price.

Our favorite stocking source for bench top positioners is Weld Plus Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio There you will find knowledgeable people to help you in your purchase of the proper size USA built table top positioner.