Ped Welder Safety

[hamburd]

In the past some of our associates have gotten their fingers injured when ped weld electrodes have closed during change-overs or maintenance. In one case a technician was manually spooling the gun valve and an operator walked up and YIKES! In another case, the air was turned off, but the welder ram drifted down and caught the set-up persons fingers.

What is the best way to disable the "extend" air on a gun cylinder while keeping the gun returned.

One of our past Safety Engineers required a ball valve on the extend port of the gun cylinder where it was easily closed by anyone changing tips, etc. Our current engineers and managers don't like that, but have yet to come up with anything better. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Hamburd

 

[Bribyk]

If I was working on it I'd want a three-way valve that would block the pressurized air and vent the downstream side to atmosphere in case the valve leaked (i.e. block and bleed). I'm pretty attached to my digits though...

 

[hydtools]

Add a rod lock.
For example:

http://www.ame.com/group.cfm?id=Rod Locks

Ted