Our Mission: We help companies decrease costs, open new revenue streams, and improve the experience with their customers. By developing devices and software that generate and manage data, we make new things possible.

The Problem

The quality of a weld is crucial, particularly in petrochemical applications. Consider all of the welds joining the sections of an oil pipeline, used to transport hazardous material across remote locations and for long-distances.  The integrity of the joints is fundamental to keeping product flowing and avoiding the ecological and financial impacts of leaks.  

How are welds inspected today?  The job of a certified welding inspector (CWI) is to ensure that each weld is per specification. Currently, CWI’s rely on manual measurements and hand calculations – which is both time consuming and error-prone. 

Our customer travels the world as a commercial welder and saw an opportunity to improve the reliability and efficiency of welding inspection – by automating the process.

The Solution

Starting with the customer requirements, Lab651 designed a proof-of-concept electronic prototype for the customer. The prototype is ruggedized to accommodate the hazardous working environment, easy to transport to different job sites, and easy to use. The device measures four parameters: duration (time) of the weld, the length of the weld, the average weld voltage, and the average weld current.  From these parameters, the welding speed and heat input (the amount of energy supplied to a joint to form a weld) is calculated and stored.

Lab651 equipped the machine with Bluetooth technology to allow for wireless transmission of the stored data records, and to enable wireless weld length measurements. The goal of this prototype was to demonstrate the benefits of automating welding inspection and secure funding to take this invention to the next level.

We can help bring your product or service to the next level!

See our latest work or contact us today!