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.