Design of a PID control for a prototype of an automated GMAW welding bench

This article describes parameters such as electrical currents, equipment voltage, separation distance between the welding gun and the piece to be welded, the electrode diameter, material thickness, and the travel speed of the welding application performed through the gas metal arc welding process. This is the main parameter for the automation of the process, To evaluate this parameter, a prototype of an automated gas metal arc welding bench was constructed, which consists of a mobile work table that secures the piece to be welded, and a structure that holds the welding gun in a fixed position, allowing during the welding the movement of the piece automatically at a speed estimated by the user. For this, ultrasound and speed sensors were used, together with the Labview-Arduino automation programs that simulate horizontal welding and finally, two proportional–integral–derivative calculation methods are compared: 1) Mathematical model of the system and 2) Calculation of the model of the plant based on actual data input voltage vs output speed. Unraveling with greater approximation the adjustment of parameters (Kc, Ti, Td), which allow for a speed designated by the operator, keeping stable the welding speed used in the gas metal Arc welding processes with respect to the piece to be welded. (paper)