fusion
It seems that manual anything is going away at a rapid pace. Manual tools require skill to use, and it seems like instead of teaching skill and pride in workmanship the current generation wants rules set up for any idiot to be able to do it, and then they have jobs for the idiots that do not seem to care if they ever learn a skill or not, as the magical black box makes it so they don't have to think. End of Rant!
JBGash
Nice work, thanks for sharing and explaining for those who have never seen it.
sadly the case for automated is to stop the amount of failures in joints ,due to them not being done correctly by accident or intentional
the latter is usually the case cutting cool times etc
all our machines log everything ,and will not perform a joint if things are not 100% ,, the clients will want this information ,and it is all downloaded from the box for them to view if needed ,beads are debeaded and randomly checked also
all the electrofusion box,s have a bar code scanner , each operator has a fusion card with their unique number on , fittings are scanned ,for heat cool time ,operators card is also scanned to allow use of box (so if you are not trained you can,t) alinement clamps have a chip fitted that the box picks up too and will not allow use if not present
a joint performed outside in the UK "should" see a sheet on the ground underneath machine ,and also performed in a tent to stop contamination of the joints from any foreign objects airborne or otherwise
the automatic machines take out the human error factor ,if heat ,soak and cool times along with pressure parameters are not keep in spec the joint is aborted
nothing wrong with a manual machine in the right hands
most of the welding i do is with one of these