FLEXTRAC™ - Robotic Welding Fume Extraction

Robotic welders produce a high volume of toxic fumes due to arc-on times that far exceed manual welding. For this reason, robotic welding cells are traditionally enclosed under a hood that is ducted to a high–powered dust collector. When applications cannot be enclosed, fumes build up on the ambient air, creating health concerns for employees and putting facilities out of regulatory compliance.

Many companies have met these challenges with powerful ventilation systems or ambient filtration. While these systems work, cleaning the air for the entire facility requires movement of large volumes of air—meaning a more powerful, and more expensive, dust collection system. Exhaust ventilation systems also create energy concerns as heated or cooled air is vented to the outside and replaced with outdoor-temperature air.

FlexTrac is a more efficient way to collect weld fumes for MIG robotic welding applications. Source capture requires much less energy, since you are moving a much smaller volume of air. FlexTrac maximizes capture efficiency by positioning the extraction tip right on the robot arm. That means a smaller, more energy efficient high-vacuum dust collector can be used to capture the fumes. If ambient filtration is still needed, a much smaller system will generally suffice to clean up any remaining fumes.

FlexTrac can be used for robotic welding of tractor-trailers, agricultural equipment, large infrastructure components and other large weldments that are difficult or impossible to put under a hood. It also works well in environments where cranes and other overhead equipment make hooded enclosures impractical. Take the quiz to see if FlexTrac is right for you.