UNITROL Soft Touch Safety System

The SOFT TOUCH Pinch-Point Safety System is the first and only fully passive safeguarding equipment designed to prevent a spot welder from applying full force if it detects fingers in the machine’s point-of-operation area.

How it works: After initiation, electrodes start to close under low force. A UNITROL touch sensor system decides when the electrodes have closed on or near the metal being welded. If an obstruction is detected prior to closing, the electrodes will go back to the fully opened position. No adjustment of SOFT TOUCH is needed when changing welding force or electrode spacing.

The system is field adjusted (with lockable settings) so that the force between electrodes in the advance portion of the stroke remains low enough to avoid major injury to the operator’s fingers. For press welders, this will even reduce the force between electrodes to considerably less than the dead weight of the ram.

Fail-safe system: If the sensor switch is already closed when the welder is being initiated, the electrode will not even start to move, and the display will show which sensor input is closed at that time. If the sensor wires from the SOFT TOUCH system have become disconnected or are making poor contact, the electrodes will close under low force and then return after a short field-settable delay (1-99 cycles).