EoW November 2012

59 / 104

57
Focus on
September 2012Nov
▲ ▲ The Minimac fromMagnetic Analysis
Finding welds in
automotive wire
Magnetic Analysis Corp’s Minimac® MAC 40 is successfully used
to detect butt welds, breaks and/or broken strands, laps, seams,
slivers, and cracks in magnetic and non-magnetic grades of wire
at speeds up to 4,000ft/min.
Typically, large spools of stranded copper automotive wire are
run through an extrusion line. However, it is difficult and time
consuming to thread the wire when the end of a coil is near.
Therefore, the beginning of the next coil is welded to the end of
the previous one to maintain a constant run.
In this application, the Minimac instrument uses eddy current
technology with high speed test coils to detect the weld during
the extrusion and coating process at speeds of 1,200ft/min to
3,500ft/min. Outputs are tracked by the customer’s PLC and
allow the weld zone to be cut out down-line, before shipment to
the end user.
The Minimac is a high performance, low cost, compact eddy
current tester designed for production line applications.
Complete networking capabilities are included. In the installation
described above, the customer uses a portable monitor
and keyboard for setup and then allows the tester to run
unmonitored.
Magnetic Analysis Corporation – USA
Website: