Optimizing & Troubleshooting Tip Dress Parameters

There are many factors to consider with tip dressing. Changer & Dresser has global resources and decades of experience in troubleshooting any issues that may occur, along with the ability to provide solutions for almost any Resistance Spot-Welding (RSW) application. For most applications, there are a few topics we have our customers consider when setting up and maintaining RSW tip dress stations.

Overview: Issues and Solutions

Tip dress issues are typically caused by incorrect tip dress parameters, abnormal welding setup, or issues with teaching. When tip dress teaching is successful and the cutter & holder are correctly specified, incorrect parameters can sometimes lead to incomplete dresses, excessive tip wear, or clogging.

Changer & Dresser has a standard set of parameters recommended to customers which depend on a number of factors:

Electrode shape and size
Tip dresser model
Cutter & holder type
General welding parameters and cap condition after welding
New cap (no welds) or used cap (full production cycle of welds)

Each of these factors can affect tip dress quality in a multitude of ways and may require different solutions.

Tip Dress Example

CD-SVR

KTWHL

Ball Nose Cap

Setup information:
• CD-SVR dresser (300 RPM)
• Standard single blade cutter & holder KTW-12G and KTWHL-12G
• Standard 16mm ball nose cap with a 6mm weld face

In this scenario with the given equipment and consumables, we would recommend a single 1 second dress at 330 lbf force. If the starting electrode does not have a pre-formed weld face, the first dress with a new cap may require multiple dresses or a longer pressurization time (1.2 – 1.5 sec) for the initial forming of the weld face. Depending on the welding application, our long-life carbide cutter is recommended to improve the consistency throughout the life of the cutter.

The user should perform testing to validate this tip dress, ensuring they are getting a clean face after every dress and that they receive the same results after a full cycle of welds has been performed with the electrodes. After the dress, it is important to validate the tip dress by performing a resistance check or utilizing one of our quality checking devices.

It is important to note these parameters are a starting point, and the user is expected to begin with these values and increase or decrease the dress time as needed, or if preferred, implement multiple sequential dresses. The goal is to achieve a consistent and clean weld face after each tip dress through the duration of both the cutter life and cap life.

Tip Dressing Considerations

If the welding face has some additional spots from an incomplete dress, the user should increase the dress time to a maximum of 1.5 seconds. Anything beyond 1.5 seconds should be done in multiple pressurizations of the dressing station, with the weld gun opening up enough to allow for the chips to be collected by the chip suction device or air blow.

If the chips are thick and getting clogged in the dresser, the pressure may need to be reduced. Conversely, if the chips are extremely thin, and the design of the welding tips causes them to deform during the welding process, higher dress pressure may be required to properly reshape the weld tips. Additionally, our dual blade (DE) and breaker notch (BN) can be used to help optimize a better tip dress and control chip size.

If a user chooses to utilize a servo tip dresser, it will allow the user to adjust one more parameter – rotation speed. The servo control allows the user to specify the cutting speed and increase or decrease the rotation speed if needed. The user may increase the rotation speed to achieve a finer weld face surface.

Once the correct time, pressure, and speed have been optimized, the weld face should have a clean and defined circular weld face. If the face is not clean and defined, then the teaching or dress consumables may need to be reviewed.

Contact Us

Properly setting up and optimizing the tip dress parameters can help reduce electrode consumption and improve weld quality. If you are in need of additional tip dresser support, please contact our sales team at cdsales@changer-dresser.com.

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