EP-4737044-A1 - WELDING WIRE FEEDERS HAVING A WIRE SPOOL BRAKE RELEASE

Abstract

The present application relates to a welding wire feeder including: a spool hub (44, 45) configured to hold a wire spool (40), a wire drive (46,50) configured to feed wire (80) from the wire spool (40); a spool brake configured to selectively resist rotation of the wire spool (40) and control circuitry (22) configured to: control the spool brake to resist the rotation of the wire spool (40) while the wire drive (46, 50) is not feeding the wire (80) from the wire spool (40), and in response to an operator input, control the spool brake to reduce resistance to the rotation of the wire spool (40) and control the wire drive (46, 50) to not feed the wire (80) from the wire spool (40).

Inventors

• HONG, Yue
• CHRISTOPHER, MARK RICHARD
• NIEMANN, Caitlin Marie
• UITENBROEK, CONNOR
• SCHWARTZ, Valarie
• BROWN, ERIK ROBERT
• ROSE, Bailey
• FINK, Joe

Assignees

• Illinois Tool Works Inc.

Dates

Publication Date

20260506

Application Date

20251031

Claims (15)

1. A welding wire feeder, comprising: a spool hub configured to hold a wire spool; a wire drive configured to feed wire from the wire spool; a spool brake configured to selectively resist rotation of the wire spool; and control circuitry configured to: control the spool brake to resist the rotation of the wire spool while the wire drive is not feeding the wire from the wire spool; and in response to an operator input, control the spool brake to reduce resistance to the rotation of the wire spool and control the wire drive to not feed the wire from the wire spool.
2. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to control the spool brake to reduce the resistance to the rotation of the wire spool for a predetermined duration in response to the operator input.
3. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 2, wherein the control circuitry is configured to, in response to a second operator input during the predetermined duration, control the spool brake to resume the resistance to the rotation of the wire spool.
4. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 1, further comprising an input device configured to receive the operator input.
5. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 4, further comprising a housing, wherein the spool hub, the wire drive, the spool brake, the control circuitry, and the input device are located within the housing.
6. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to control the spool brake to reduce the resistance to the rotation of the wire spool by disengaging the spool brake from the wire spool.
7. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 1, wherein the spool brake comprises an electrically controlled spool brake configured to engage a lateral surface of at least one of the wire spool, the spool hub, or a spindle coupled to the spool hub, with a force configured to increase the resistance to the rotation of the wire spool.
8. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 7, wherein the spool brake comprises an electromagnetic spool brake.
9. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to, in response to receiving an input signal indicative of a welding operation, control the spool brake to reduce the resistance to the rotation of the wire spool or wherein the welding wire feeder further comprising communication circuitry configured to receive a signal representative of the operator input.
10. A welding wire feeder, comprising: a spool hub configured to hold a wire spool; a wire drive configured to feed wire from the wire spool; a spool brake configured to selectively resist rotation of the wire spool; and control circuitry configured to: control the spool brake to resist the rotation of the wire spool when the wire drive is not feeding wire from the wire spool; and in response to an operator input, control the spool brake to reduce resistance to the rotation of the wire spool for a predetermined duration.
11. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 10, wherein the control circuitry is configured to control the spool brake to reduce the resistance to the rotation of the wire spool further in response to determining that the wire drive is not feeding wire from the wire spool, and optionally wherein the control circuitry is configured to, in response to a second operator input during the predetermined duration, control the spool brake to resume the resistance to the rotation of the wire spool.
12. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 10, wherein the operator input comprises an input device, and optionally the welding wire feeder further comprising a housing, wherein the spool hub, the wire drive, the spool brake, the control circuitry, and the input device are located within the housing.
13. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 10, wherein the control circuitry is configured to control the spool brake to reduce the resistance to the rotation of the wire spool by disengaging the spool brake from the wire spool.
14. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 10, wherein the spool brake comprises an electrically controlled spool brake configured to engage a lateral surface of at least one of the wire spool, the spool hub, or a spindle coupled to the spool hub, with a force configured to increase the resistance to the rotation of the wire spool, and optionally wherein the spool brake comprises an electromagnetic spool brake.
15. The welding wire feeder as defined in claim 10, wherein the control circuitry is configured to, in response to receiving an input signal indicative of a welding operation, control the spool brake to reduce the resistance to the rotation of the wire spool or wherein the welding wire feeder further comprising communication circuitry configured to receive a signal representative of the operator input.

Description

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 63/714,498, filed October 31, 2024, entitled "WIRE FEEDERS HAVING A WIRE SPOOL BRAKE RELEASE." The entirety of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 63/714,498 is expressly incorporated herein by reference. FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE This disclosure relates generally to welding-type wire feeders and, more particularly, to wire feeders having a wire spool brake release. BACKGROUND In some welding-type applications, a welding wire feeder may be used to feed welding wire from a wire spool to a welding torch for a welding operation. Because wire spools carry a finite quantity of wire, a wire spool must be replaced when the wire from the wire spool has been consumed. The process of replacing a wire spool typically involves feeding the wire from the wire spool to a welding-type torch after replacement prior to resuming welding-type operations. SUMMARY Wire feeders having a wire spool brake release are disclosed, substantially as illustrated by and described in connection with at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims. DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates a welding-type system including a wire feeder and a wire feeder source, in accordance with aspects of this disclosure.FIG. 2 illustrates an example system including another implementation of the wire feeder and wire feeder source of the welding-type system of FIG. 1.FIG. 3 illustrates another example welding-type system in which elements of the wire feeder and elements of the wire source of FIG. 1 are combined or integrated with elements of the power supply into a single enclosure.FIG. 4 is a flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions which may be performed to implement the welding-type system, wire feeder, power supply, and/or wire source of FIGS. 1-3 to control a spool brake. The figures are not necessarily to scale. Where appropriate, similar or identical reference numbers are used to refer to similar or identical components. DETAILED DESCRIPTION In some welding-type operations, such as gas metal arc welding (GMAW), flux cored arc welding (FCAW), and submerged arc welding (SAW), welding wire is fed by a wire feeder to a torch for a welding operation. In some applications, the wire is supplied via a spool, which pays out the wire to the wire feeder during feeding. In some conventional wire feeders, the wire spool is coupled to a braking system or other rotational resistance to compensate for a low resting tension of the motor or other actuator driving the wire feeder. The braking system reduces or prevents over-spooling of the wire (e.g., wire jump) that can cause feeding problems. While the braking system reduces or prevents over-spooling of the wire, the rotational resistance on the wire spool requires the operator to exert substantial force on the wire spool to manually feed the wire and/or reel in the wire. Disclosed example wire feeders and welding-type systems include a wire spool brake that can be disengaged or otherwise released by a brake release input (e.g., separate from a welding operation input such as a welding torch trigger or wire jog input). While the wire feeder or welding-type system is in an idle or non-welding state, the wire spool brake is engaged to reduce or prevent rotation of the spool by tension and/or internal forces on the spooled wire. In response to the brake release input, the example wire feeder or welding-type system controls the wire spool brake to reduce or remove the resistance to rotation, thereby allowing the operator to manually rotate the wire spool more easily to pay out and/or respool the wire. In some examples, the wire spool brake is controlled to reduce or remove the resistance for a predetermined period, after which the wire spool brake is controlled to reengage the wire spool to increase the resistance. The operator may repeatedly use the brake release input after that wire spool brake is reengaged, and/or the operator may use the brake release input multiple times to increment the predetermined period. In some examples, wire spool brake is reengaged during the predetermined period in response to predefined operator inputs (e.g., a torch trigger press, a jog command, etc.) or in response to any operator input. In some examples, the brake release input is a button or other input device, which may be located within a housing of the wire feeder or welding-type system. For example, the brake release input may be positioned so as to be accessible when the wire spool is accessible to the operator, and covered when the wire spool is covered or inaccessible to the operator. In other examples, the brake release input may be located on a user interface with other operator controls, and/or may be received via a communication with a remote control device, such as a remote pendant or communicatively connected computing device (e.g., a smartphone). Disclosed examp