Mar. 17, 2025
Welding is a process that uses electricity to generate extreme and localized heat to melt metal and fuse it together. Melted metal is molten liquid, albeit temporarily, which can cause problems.
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One of the most significant challenges of welding that you might not consider if you're new is the position in which you're welding. A 'standard' weld is horizontal and flat. You can move your welding gun over carefully positioned metal for maximum ease of access.
What happens, though, if you need to weld the side of a surface, or even overhead?
All sorts of issues can crop up when welding out of position. Foremost among them is gravity. When welding vertically, your weld pool can sag out of place, leading to a loss of filler material, uneven welds, drips, and weakness in the finished product.
Overhead welding is even worse. Not only can the weld pool drip, but it can also be dangerous if it's above you and molten metal drips down onto you. That's one of many reasons why the proper safety equipment is 100% required for any welding you might do.
There are many considerations to make when you're welding vertically or overhead. Specific welding rods don't work in vertical or overhead positions; for example, they create weld pools that are too fluid and will drip out of place.
Sometimes there's no way around it. Shipbuilding and various construction welding applications are prime examples. It's not as though you can rotate a ship to weld the hull. Right?
Most of the time, the first step in a welding project is positioning your workpieces as conveniently as possible. That means rotating, moving, and repositioning the pieces you need to weld to get them in the right place.
Depending on the job and the scale of the materials you're working with, this may be easy or complicated. Large, heavy pieces of metal require manual repositioning, which may require more than one person to move the pieces. Accessing the area that you need to weld can take time and effort, even after the parts have been rotated.
Thankfully, modern technology has gone a long way toward solving these problems. That's where a welding positioner comes into play.
Welding positioners are specialized tools to help maneuver, rotate, and reposition the items you're welding, to put them in an ideal position, no matter how large or unwieldy they are.
A positioner is not to be confused with a welding table. Welding tables are typically heavy metal tables that you can adjust in height for comfortable welding. You can clamp your working pieces to the table, often using magnetic clamps, but there's only one position for those pieces.
A welding positioner is more advanced. Like a welding table, welding positioners have a metal surface that you can use with magnets to attach pieces you're going to weld together. Unlike a welding table, they can be angled and rotated while holding your working materials firm.
With a positioner, you can attach your working pieces to them and rotate and angle them so that welding horizontally and flat is faster, easier, and safer:
Welding positioners are handy tools for a variety of welding applications. They can save welders time and effort by ensuring they only need to move the welding gun instead of repositioning the entire workpiece multiple times. Additionally, using a welding positioner can significantly improve the accuracy of welds, leading to higher-quality results with fewer mistakes.
Welding positioners come in various sizes and configurations; having one of the appropriate sizes for the projects you typically take on can be extremely useful for your workshop.
Like anything in this world, welding positioners come in many different forms.
The simplest welding positioners include stands, clamps, and mounts. These allow you to hang, adjust, rotate, and position materials you're planning to weld, but they require manual adjustment of the pieces rather than the table itself. They can be similar to jack stands or arm mounts, with two or so parts of articulation to make positioning your work surface as accurate as possible using simple mechanisms.
Slightly more advanced welding positioners are heavy-duty tables with robust mechanisms, often using gearing rather than manual adjustment and repositioning.
Sometimes, you can use built-in clamping mechanisms to attach your project materials. Other times, you need magnetic clamps. Either way, these positioners have high weight capacities, allowing you to easily position and weld materials anywhere from 300 lbs. up to 10,000 lbs.
Obviously, at higher weights, you're no longer using manual control to manipulate your project; the welding positioner typically has motorized controls.
The most advanced welding positioners are no longer tables or work surfaces. Instead, they're large and complex machines. These machines are more like workshop installations than they are workspace tools. However, they enable many valuable features, such as computer-controlled rotation and movement, and even automated welding you can program into the machine. These features allow you to create more complex welds around surfaces that need to be rotated and highly accurate, even welds.
Welding automation is often used for extremely large, very complex, or frequently-repeated projects, and it's a little outside the scope of today's post, so we'll bypass the details for now.
Welding positioners have many potential benefits, some of which you might not think about at first glance.
Instead of precariously balancing or securing pieces in awkward positions before welding, a welding positioner allows the welder to set up their work surface for maximum ease of use.
Many beginning welders train almost exclusively on horizontal welds, so they will be what you are likely most familiar with. Using a welding positioner allows you to adjust the items you're welding to ensure that you're working on a horizontal bead, even if you will position the finished product vertically or overhead.
Again, while this may be unavoidable in some situations, the ideal is to use a welding positioner to minimize the strain welding places on your body and mind, allowing you to weld more, longer, and at a higher average quality level.
With all of these benefits, it's no wonder that many businesses, factories, and other facilities commonly needing to weld materials will invest in welding positioners.
There are a few relatively small drawbacks to using welding positioners, though most aren't really drawbacks, just considerations.
Some shops need the floor or desk space to dedicate to a welding positioner. Those who can find the space often find it's a worthwhile tradeoff, so again, this isn't purely a drawback, merely a consideration to remember. Of course, the equipment necessary to reposition materials for welding without a positioner often takes up even more space, so that a positioner can be a net increase in floor space in some cases.
On the other hand, an automated system is unmatched for bulk welding and consistent throughput.
While every welding positioner is unique and will have its user guide, there are some generalized tips you can use to make sure you're getting the most out of your tools.
Here are our tips for first-time users of welding positioners:
Does a welding positioner sound right for your project? If so, we have a wide variety of positioners of all shapes and sizes available for sale, lease, or rent. Depending on your needs, there will be something for everyone in our catalog.
In the market today, there are a ton of welding manipulators to choose from. But, how do you find the best one for your business or for your projects?
Today's guide will be focusing on just that! As a matter of fact, we will help and assist you in understanding what welding manipulators are. Furthermore, you'll also be an expert when it comes to choosing the welding manipulator for the job!
At the end of this guide, you'll not only be an expert with welding manipulators, you will also learn where you can get the best ones in the market!
A welding manipulator is a machine or a device that you can use to make welding easier.
Sample of what a welding manipulator looks like
The primary function of a weld manipulator is to move the weld head to the workpiece in such a manner that it's closer and easier to reach.
One good reason why many welders choose to use welding manipulators is because of the fact that it can reach places, spots, and even heights that a regular welder might find difficult.
NOTE: In using a welding manipulator, it's always better if you have a welding positioner to give additional aid to your projects.
In case you're starting to question if it involves a robotic arm 100% of the time, or if you need to manually move it, don't fret ' we got you.
Image of a worker toggling or working on a welding manipulator
Basically, a welding manipulator sets a welding head in motion in order to reach spots, heights, and places on the workpiece.
It can be a manual welding manipulator where you would have to position the device to its rightful area, and it can be automatic and pre-programmed.
You can think of how it works easily ' think of a welding head that has an extended length. Thanks to this length, even if the project requires you to weld a 20-ft. vessel, you don't have to risk climbing up to that height to weld what's necessary.
That's the general idea of how welding manipulators work
Ideally, different versions and kinds of welding manipulators have different parts. However, there are 'primary' parts that are common across all types and kinds of manipulators.
Image of a welding manipulator where the parts are highlighted
For instance, if you remove one of its primary components, the manipulator wouldn't properly function.
Some of these primary parts include, but are not limited to:
Without any of these, you wouldn't be able to call a machine a welding manipulator.
While the market is filled with a lot of welding manipulators, there are three (3) considered the most common and the most purchased due to the functionality and the usage that they hold.
Sample image of a column & boom weld manipulator
The most common types of welding manipulators include:
Column & boom welders are welding manipulators that you usually use for welding structural beams, as well as other kinds and types of structures that are big and large in size.
It's called column & boom because it's comprised of a column (vertical metal), and a boom (horizontal metal). The two (2) go and function together; the column is what you can thank for the locomotion flexibility that the boom can give you.
A column & boom weld manipulator is a machine you can use to automate welding in such a fashion that the welding head is the one moved and adjusted.
A rotary welding positioner is a type of a device or a machine that you can use to help you accurately position the workpiece.
Unlike column & boom, rotary welding positioners reposition and manipulate the workpiece, instead of the weld head.
Last but definitely not least are welding rollers.
They're probably the least common type of welding manipulator in the market, but many business sectors and industries use this, too.
The idea behind weld rollers is for the welder to avoid slipping and inaccuracy when it comes to welding cylindrical objects and workpieces.
One good example is when a welder needs to weld a tank. It's going to be hard to use a welding positioner for it, especially if it's more than 50 kg ' and that's where the importance of welding rollers come in.
These are three (3) of the most common types of welding manipulators out in the market. Don't be confused, there are others ' these are only the favorites and the most used.
Yes, there's not a written rule saying that you should 'never' buy a used manipulator.
As a matter of fact, buying a used welding manipulator holds too few benefits and advantages. For one, they're going to be much cheaper and more affordable than a brand new one.
Another benefit of purchasing a used weld manipulator is that you already know that the product is working ' you don't need to test it out.
Upon purchasing, though, it will be in your responsibility to see if the manipulator is still in its good condition. It will be up to you to determine this.
Many people ask ' are welding manipulators and welding positioners the same?
Sample image of what a weld positioner looks like
Going back to the types of weld manipulators above, there's one named 'rotary welding positioners,' and it's technically the same.
They are two (2) different machines, and while both of them carry the same goal ' they don't function in the same way.
In welding manipulators, we talked about how it moves and sets in motion the weld head. On the opposite end of the rope, a welding positioner is a type of auxiliary machine that moves and positions the workpiece.
Don't be confused as to which is which; in fact, you can use both of them to complement each other!
What do you look for in a welding manipulator? Are you sure that you're choosing them based on how you need them? Or just based off of what others are looking for too?
When it comes to the specs or the specifications of weld manipulators, you need to make sure that you're looking for the things that 'you' or 'your business needs.'
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To help you with it further, here are some of the most important specifications.
Load capacity refers to the maximum amount of load or stress that the manipulator is capable of withstanding without it underperforming.
Ideally, it's the capacity of your manipulator to carry and to work on a particular material in terms of weight.
The column stroke refers to the maximum distance or stroke in which the column is capable of moving.
Generally, the usual column stroke of welding manipulators lie around 55 to 65 inches.
Akin to the column stroke, the boom stroke is the distance that the boom is able to travel; and to give you the most general idea of the length of the boom stroke, it sits at about 39 to 50 inches.
This is the total weight of the welding manipulator.
NOTE: In checking the equipment mass, be sure to know if the attachments are included. Some manufacturers don't include the attachments ' this can result to improper weight adjustments for shipping, etc.
The power requirement is what the machine needs in order for it to operate.
Unlike other specifications, the power requirement will depend on the type of motor used, as well as the functionality of the weld manipulator.
It will vary from one manufacturer to another.
A travel car is a component or a part of a welding manipulator that can perform long seam welding.
Therefore, travel car speed is the rate in which the travel car can go from one point to another.
These are some of the most important specifications to note in purchasing a welding manipulator. To put emphasis on it ' it's not all of them. There are far more specifications ' they're just what a wide variety of clients and customers look for often.
We all know that automated welding is being seen as one of the most effective solutions to the worst welding problems we grew out of.
Highly efficient results of welding in using weld manipulators
Even if that's the case, a lot of people still overlook the advantages of using weld manipulators.
In fact, here are some of the most notable benefits of using a welding manipulator:
The first thing to understand is that a welding manipulator promises a safer working environment.
With a welding manipulator, your welder wouldn't be anymore required to be side-by-side with the 10-ton workpiece.
The welder can simply go back and forth to see if the program for a particular project is done right and accurately.
What do we need machines for other than the fact that they can eliminate human intervention? ' Speed.
With a welding manipulator, the amount and the volume of projects you can complete is truly unimaginable.
Several welders reported that they were able to finish a project at less than half the time when they were manually doing it.
Automated welding is not just existent to ensure that your projects will be done and accomplished fast ' but also to make sure that the consistency and the quality of the weld is there.
Yes, human welders have the consciousness of a human, and therefore, can easily adjust. However, automatic welding manipulators or those that you can program are accurate and precise to what you have programmed them to do.
There's going to be little room for errors, and that's a guarantee.
And last but definitely not least is that it can give your welders mobility and flexibility.
Let's say you have a welder that is not so tall ' how would he be able to reach an 8-ft. weld? That's easy if we consider using a welding manipulator.
No matter how high the weld needs to be, and no matter how stiff the welder is, a welding manipulator will be more than enough to do the trick.
Say goodbye to time-consuming welds that are too hassle and complicated. Finish the job earlier, faster, and with more accurate results!
Would all types of welding be compatible in using a welding manipulator? Apparently, yes ' but not all might be effective.
There are several welding procedures that might not find the success with weld manipulators. But, among those that have been proven and tested to work effectively include:
A pipe welding manipulator is a pretty self-explanatory machine.
Image of a pipe welding manipulator in action
It is a welding manipulator that you'd have to use if you are to work on pipes, tanks, vessels, and other rounded and cylindrical workpieces.
They're specialized to have a good grasp of the workpiece even if it doesn't have a rough edge.
Yes, you can purchase portable welding manipulators, and there are lots of them in the market.
Do note, though, that although they're portable, they might not be able to give you the exact results you're looking for.
As a matter of fact, you might not be able to use them for medium-to-heavy-duty applications.
You can identify seam welding to be the welding of two (2) materials through electrical resistance heat generation.
Seam welding machine
The idea behind it, so you could understand it easier, is the word 'seam.'
A seam welder, therefore, is a device or a machine that you can use to initiate the fusing or two (2) different materials down a never-ending seam.
The golden question that everyone wants to know the answer to. Would it be better to rent a welding manipulator or to purchase them outright?
This question is actually relative and the answer to this will vary depending on your business needs, your budget, and how you would use them.
Let's take a look at the pros and cons of each.
Here are some of the benefits and advantages of renting out welding manipulators:
When it comes to the drawbacks and the cons of it, they are as follows:
That's what we have if you plan on renting welding manipulators. Now, let's look at buying or purchasing them outright.
Here are some of the disadvantages of purchasing welding manipulators vs. renting it out.
Those are the points that differentiate renting a welding manipulator from purchasing one.
Choosing a welding manipulator isn't a walk in the park. As a matter of fact, you can consider this to be the most important aspect of your search.
There are lots of different varieties of welding manipulators you can choose from
All welding manipulators are different in terms of type, size, weight, as well as the features and functionalities.
And, in order for you to get the most out of your purchase, you have to remember the following tips so that you get the best type of welding manipulator for your needs.
The first thing we want to talk about is the business that you have. More often than not, businesses forget that they're purchasing welding manipulators for their projects; they tend to overlook it, which makes them purchase the wrong or the incorrect manipulator.
But, if you consider your business, several scenarios will play in your head. You'll try to remember the processes and the projects you need to do, the materials you need to weld, etc.
Akin to the features and functionalities of the welding manipulator of your choice, the control system would also be different from one manipulator to another.
What this basically means is that not all welding manipulators would have the same ways of control. There would be manipulators that have a digital control system, a manual control system, etc.
Try to picture yourself operating the machine ' would you be comfortable in doing that? Would the operation of the machine be convenient to your capabilities?
You might not be the one operating it, but try to put your shoes on the welders and the operators.
Check and see if the head adjustment is easy enough to operate, look at the slides and the movement adjustments if it fits your knowledge, and the like.
When you are purchasing a welding manipulator, you need to accept the fact that you'll be using it for a long time.
As a matter of fact, you might even need to upgrade to a new one if the moment is right. So, in choosing a manipulator, make sure that you consider the price and the value of it if you are going to upgrade it.
These are a couple of the most important things that you need to consider in choosing which welding manipulator to buy.
Finding the best welding manipulator in the market is not easy, but if you work with us here at Weld Fab, we can definitely attend to all of what you need.
For years, we've done nothing but provide excellent quality welding manipulators. Over time, we have successfully developed and streamlined our business processes, resulting to higher and better quality of products in our arsenal.
So, if you ever find yourself in need of a longitudinal seam welding manipulator, column and boom manipulator (TIG, SAW, and MIG), or even a circular seam welding manipulator, you can trust us!
Weld Fab is just one of the thousands of Chinese weld manipulator manufacturing companies. But, that doesn't mean that we offer the same quality and the same type of products as them.
As a matter of fact, we're known in the industry for we have provided numerous clients with the exact welding manipulators their businesses needed.
Thanks to the continuous development of our Research & Development (R&D) team, we're able to help you even further by offering custom welding manipulators for you!
Wherever you are in the world, you can put your trust on Weld Fab! Thousands of businesses and companies like you from all across the globe rely on us and our production ' you can, too!
Weld Fab is skilled and determined to provide tens of tons of weld manipulator products per year!
Don't worry about where you can get your next batch of weld manipulators ' contact us and we'll supply you with a free estimate!
As the best weld manipulator supplier in China, our product line is always updating. We're always on the run for the best, the newest, and the most updated products a majority of businesses need.
Reach out to us and learn more about how Weld Fab will be the best company you can work with!
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