Today, welding companies face strict requirements from customers, regulators and inspecting bodies. Periodic validation of welding equipment is necessary but manual validation is a cumbersome process. Arc Validator L650 simplifies the process.

Validation of the welding equipment is to ensure that the equipment functions correctly and produces the desired welding parameters (current, voltage and wire feed speed) as per its operation characteristics with adequate accuracy. In general, the validation should be carried out once in a year. It may be necessary to validate at more frequent intervals, depending upon the recommendation of the manufacturer, the requirements of the user, or where there is reason to believe that the performance of the equipment may have deteriorated. Validation should always be carried out after any repair or operation liable to affect the validation.

Today, welding companies face strict requirements from customers, regulators and inspecting bodies. If their welding equipment is not validated, they fail to meet national and international standards and customer requirements for welding equipment accuracy.

Arc Validator L650

Kemppi’s Arc Validator is the first ever automated and universal solution for welding equipment validation. It offers fast, consistent and thorough welding equipment validation, meeting the requirements of ISO 3834 and EN 50504 standards. Among the benefits it offers are up to 80% faster validations, effortless reporting and standards compliant documentation and certificate creation. It is compatible with all brands and models of welding machines and welding processes (TIG, MIG & MMA).

The picture shows the Arc Validator L650 unit, the remote control (RC) device used for operating the Arc Validator, saving and transferring validation data from and to a computer and the PC Software installed on the computer used to generate report and validation certificate creation.

Arc Validator is used for current, voltage and wire feed speed validation of welding power sources and wire feeders. In manual mode, Arc Validator is compatible with the vast majority of welding equipment with absolute unit meters – despite the brand or the type. In case of Kemppi’s FastMIG M, X, Pulse, KMS and Kemp arc Pulse Series welding power sources and its suitable wire feeders, Automatic Validation option is available. In that mode, Arc Validator automatically controls and operates the validated equipment through the remote control connection during the validation process. The user/customer can choose either standard validation (normal accuracy) or precision validation (higher level of accuracy) according to the European Standard EN 50504.

The picture shows the typical validation certificate is generated from the PC software.

Manual validation is often very time consuming. The welding equipment is set up and the person coordinating the validation process has to manually adjust the parameters and write down whether they are within the certain tolerance limits. This process is slow and prone for simple human errors. With Kemppi Arc Validator, one does not need to calculate or write down anything. Just connect the validator to the welding equipment and let the system do everything. As all the tests and parameter adjustments are done automatically and there is less likelihood of errors in the process, thus the Arc Validator delivers consistent and accurate results.

Validation accuracies for Standard grade Power sources as per EN50504:

Validation accuracies for Precision grade power sources as per EN50504

Generally, It is recommended that precision grade equipment is validated more frequently than standard grade equipment and a 6-month-interval, or more frequently is recommended.

Validation accuracy for Wire feed Equipment as per EN 50504 

Why validation is more critical in pulse welding

Generally, slope and pulse controls are considered to be precision grade and the validation accuracies should conform to ±5 % of setting, unless specified by the manufacturer.

The validation of pulse controls is very important contribution to the quality of pulsed welding. It is a more difficult task than the validation of slope controls. It requires equipment with a faster response than is necessary for the validation of slope controls. An instrument response of at least ten times that of the maximum pulse frequency of the power source is recommended to validate the pulse controls.

To validate the pulse controls, normally the high knowledge of the power source control circuits and special instrumentation is required and is most likely to be carried out by equipment manufacturers.