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WIMS App for iPhone

Many people have said that it would be nice to have a standalone App that doesn't require an Internet connection to reliably record parameters. Security concerns are another reason why companies often prefer to handle important data internally.

There are also compromises on the screen presentation when designing web applications that are easier to overcome with a dedicated App.

The iPhone version can be installed from the Apple App Store.






Quick Start

When the program is launched, there is a standard disclaimer that the user needs to agree before proceeding. The App will then create its database and preload the Consumables table with some examples.
(In the unlikely event that the internal database is ever corrupted, it is likely that the user will not be able to proceed past this screen, even when "I Agree" is pressed. Therefore an additional button is provided to allow the user to proceed to the "Re-Initialise" Screen, which would allow the database to be deleted and re-created the next time the App is run)

The user is then taken to the Main Screen, and may then wish to access the Consumables table to input their own preferences, via the 3 Dots menu drop-down at top right.

Leaving that aside for now, the first thing to consider for most parameter records will be their identification. Press the Details icon  to access these:-



Set the "Parameter Type" and enter any other required details. Then press the back arrow at top left to return to the Main Screen.

When the welder starts welding, press the "Start" button. This will re-initialise the Record Time and set the stop-watch running.



Press the "Stop" button when welding ends. Note that you can re-start the Stop-Watch if you are recording a total weld length with several stop/starts. Restarting will not alter the Record Time, shown in blue. Every time you press "Stop", the Stop-Watch elapsed time is pasted into the "Arc Time" field.

Whilst the Stop-Watch is running (or at any time), the user can fill in the other fields to enable the final calculations to be made with the "Calc All" button.

When all calculations and data input are complete, pressing the "New" button will create a new record.

If the "Pass" or "No" fields have a value in them, the new record will have these filled in. The "No" field will be incremented if it has a value, otherwise the "Pass" field will be if it has a number. If the "No" field is incrementing, then the user will need to manually alter the "Pass" field and change the "No" field back to 1 when recording the next weld "Pass". The "No" field is designed to represent individual electrodes, so it will often be left blank when recording over full weld lengths.

It will be noticed that the Consumables are selected from a drop-down that includes the diameter, rather than separating these variables. This is to make it easier to use the short-cut volumetric heat input estimates as it avoids input errors. These drop-down values are shown in exports along with all the relevant consumable data, including Welding Process, Consumable Name, Consumable Diameter. There is therefore no need to input Consumable, Diameter, and Process separately.

It's important to note that when the user presses the "New" record button, it is that record that defines the information that is copied to the new record. This will include:
  • Main Screen - "Side", "Weld Area", Incremented "Pass" and "No", "Position" "Consumable" drop-down value, "Input Speed", & "Polarity" drop-down value
  • Details Screen - "Parameter Type" drop-down value, "WPS/PQR/SWIS Reference", "Welder", "Project", but NOT "Notes"
  • Settings Screen - All values

The "Parameter Type", "Reference", and "Welder" are shown on the Main Screen in blue to alert the user if they need to change any of the details when creating new records.


GTAW/TIG (141) Reminder

High frequency (HF) starts on TIG machines can damage electronic equipment. When monitoring this process, do not allow your phone to contact the workpiece, workbench, welding machine/cables, or welder, either directly or through contact with you while you are holding it.

Differences from the Web Version

The iPhone version has a few deliberate changes to the website operation.

Firstly, all data is stored on the user's phone/tablet. There is no connection to the web, other than if the user opts to send the parameters via the iPhone "Share" feature.

Secondly, all parameter records are in a single table that can handle all unit types; the units are recorded along with all other inputs in the Parameters table. This allows the user to work in different units for some records, and then change back for new records at a later date.
The Settings Screen is accessed via the Cog icon 



The AE/HI (Arc Energy/Heat Input) selection is a special case. If you leave it on "derive", then these units will be based on the selected Energy and Length units. However, you can override this with the "kJ/mm" or "J/in" options.

The "WFS Threshold" value is used when the "Auto Convert WFS" toggle switch is on. It's not unusual for fabricators to use a range of wire feeders / welding sets, and therefore no guarantee that they will use the same wire feed speed settings. When this function is enabled the user can convert the WFS at the time of entry by pressing the enter key. So for example, if the WFS units were set to "m/min" and the user entered 400 and pressed the Enter key, this will be converted to 10.16 m/min as it is greater than the "WFS Threshold" of 39. Similarly if the default units are in "in/min" and the user inputs 9, pressing enter converts this to 354.3 because it was less than 39.

Use the back arrow icon at top left to return to the Main Screen.



Record Locking

On the Main Screen is a toggle switch called "Record Lock". This switch will appear On whenever the user moves to a previously saved record, but only if that record has an Arc Energy / Heat Input value saved. This is to prevent accidental modification of records when moving around.

When the Record-Locked toggle switch is On, the user is not prevented from making changes on-screen or carrying out calculations; the changes just won't be saved. This is intended behaviour because it allows temporary changing of calculated figure units, without changing the underlying record.

If the user does want to make changes to a record (including Details and Settings), they just need to switch this toggle Off before moving off the record.

Calculation Priority

It is often possible to calculate the Arc Energy and Heat Input in several ways when the user fills in all available fields.

The calculation method obeys the following priority (Highest First)
  1. Calculation from "Input Energy" and "ROL"
  2. Calculation from "Volts", "Amps", and "Input Spd"
  3. Calculation from ""Volts", "Amps", "Time", and "ROL"
  4. Estimation from "ROL" and "Stub Length" for SMAW Electrodes
  5. Estimation from "Arc Time", "ROL", and WFS for GMAW/FCAW Wires, unless the user enters an "Input Spd" to overwrite the Travel Speed calculated from "Arc Time" and "ROL"
Note that "ROL" stands for Run-Out Length. This may be the whole weld length or a single bead, depending on the types of readings required.

The calculation or estimation method is shown on the Details screen, and is also exported with the parameter record.

Here is a screenshot, showing the result of a Wirefeed Speed vs Travel Speed estimate:-



As the Amps is missing in the above calculation, WIMS has estimated the Arc Energy and Heat Input from the wire feed speed (WFS) and the Speed derived from the Arc Time and ROL (weld length).

However, if you input the welding current (Amps), a full calculation can be performed, and this takes priority when the "Calc All" button is pressed again:-

 




Consumables

The Consumables Screen is accessed via the 3 Dots drop-down menu at top-right.



The Drop-Down selector at the top of the screen can be used to move to any existing consumable record, or the Left and Right pointing buttons move to the Previous or Next record accordingly.

When the user presses the "New" record button, the new Consumable Name has to be unique, and should include the diameter for easy reference.

USA users may opt to input Arc "Efficiency" figures of 1.0, as this differentiation is of ISO origin, and rarely used there.

If volumetric methods may be used for electrodes, it is essential to input the correct "Diameter" and "Electrode Length" in mm.

The "Wire Factor" and "Wire Constant" values shown above are a good starting point for 1.2mm FCAW(136) wires of most steel and nickel types, but will need to be determined from PQR/Parameter Check records for other metals and Solid Wires or Metal-Cored Wires.

For more details on this, please refer to the infomation given on this website; in particular the PDF presentation at the top of this page list.

The "Priority" field is used to set an order for the consumables as they appear in drop-down lists. The example consumables are initialised with a priority of 100 so that the appear at the end of the list after the user's inputs.


Filtering Parameter Records

Pressing the filter icon  brings up a query dialog. If the query is successful, the icon turns red to show that the record set is being filtered. This means you can browse through just the matching records. Pressing the red filtered icon  again turns it back to the WIMS theme colour, and all records can continue being browsed.



This feature makes it easy to review the readings for a single PQR, all welder monitoring checks, or just one specific welder. By using the filters, the user can easily switch from one activity to another and back again.




Deleting Records

The SQLite database used by the WIMS App is capable of handling thousands of records, but the user will inevitably want to delete records that are no-longer required.

WIMS provides a single record or query-based filter that is used to delete multiple records in one operation. The "Delete Parameters" selection on the 3 Dots drop-down menu is used to access this.



As it would be easy to delete all records accidentally, delete operations are a 2-stage process; the "Confirm Delete" button only appears when you press the "This Record" button or the "Query" button. The query to be used, and the expected result are shown in the multiline text box.
(the actual SQL differs slightly to avoid SQL injection attacks using the "Reference" field but the number of records affected is derived from the same WHERE clause. I'm not sure why anyone would want to try and hack their own phone, but this is always good practice)

If the user presses the "This Record" button, the "Confirm Delete" button will appear and show that just the current record will be deleted. Press it to confirm.

The "Parameter Type" and "Reference" drop-downs can be used with the "Before Date" and "After Date" buttons in any combination. Just use the "Query" button to display the expected result. If you are certain that you want the deletion to occur, press the "Confirm Delete" button.

Note that the Before Date and After Date buttons work slightly differently to the Android version. When you have selected a date to use in a query, the Clear button will be enabled. Pressing the clear button removes the displayed date from the query.


Carbon Equivalents and Preheat Calculations

screen showing method B preheat calculation

This screen is accessed from the "Tools" menu and will perform the 3 main carbon-equivalent calculations; CEQ (IIW), CET, and Pcm.

Input the Steel Composition on the left and press the "Calc CE" button.

Then input the Thickness, Hydrogen Level, Heat Input, and press "Calc Preheat" to predict the minimum preheat using Method B from EN 1011-2 / ISO/TR 17671-2.
A couple of things to note:
  • If you already know the CET value, you can put the figure directly in the CET field. The light blue background indicates that it can be calculated or will take a direct input.
  • If you put a value in the chemical composition or the Thickness / Hydrogen / Heat Input fields that is outside the specified range of applicability, the background will turn pink/red to indicate a high value and blue to indicate a low value. You can still perform a calculation but it's unsupported.
  • Similarly the CET field will change colour if it is too high or low to be supported.
When you press the "Calc Preheat" button, the 800-500 deg. C Cooling Time is also calculated. The flexible "Preheat" field at the bottom can be changed to carry out "What-If?" experiments on the cooling time.

If you fill in the H2 (Hydrogen) level, but omit the Thickness and/or Heat Input values, the App will assume that you want to determine the correct Method A diagram and report that along with the hydrogen scale as follows:-


Screen showing method A preheat figure selection




Colour-coded Fields


On the Preheat screen the Method B calculations are expecting input variables within certain ranges. If the input value falls outside the expected range, low values are indicated by the field background changing to blue and high values to pink/red as shown below for the carbon (C) and silicon (Si) fields:

 screen showing out of range high and low colours in light mode screen showing out of range high and low colours in dark mode


Exporting Records

Xojo didn't make this easy, though I expect this procedure will improve with future versions.

To export Parameters, the WIMS App uses the built-in iPhone "Share" feature. Exports are basically text in CSV or tab-delimited format.



The "TXT" and "TAB" options both produce tab-delimited text. CSV produces comma-separated values enclosed in double quotes (").

"Parameter Type", "Reference", "Before Date", and "After Date" can be used independently or in any combination - very similar to the delete screen. If you leave these alone, all parameter records will be shared.

Unlike the "Delete" screen, the user is not shown the result before the share; it's not critical as we're not deleting anything, though the result will be shown afterwards, even if you cancel.

The types of share available will depend on the other applications installed on the user's device, but will always include copy to clipboard. However, the most obvious way to share the data is to copy it to use the "Save to Files" option. When you do this, it will always be shared as a UTF-8 standard text file. 

The snag is that the default filename is always "text", which is not that useful - you don't even get a file extension. In Xojo the only way to change the default filename is to write a plug-in, which doesn't keep the code that tidy. I am fairly confident that the Xojo developers will sort this eventually, but for now I have implemented the following workaround:

The "Add Proposed Filename to Clipboard" toggle switch is recommended. When this is on, a subject is created called "WIMS Export".<ext>
If "Add TimeStamp to Name" is selected, this will be "WIMS Export YYYYMMDD HHMMSS".<ext>
<ext> will be the "Text to File Target" selected.

When the share to "Save to Files" dialog appears, delete the "text" filename and tap the filename field again. Then select "Paste" to use the generated filename. It's a bit clumsy, but it becomes 2nd nature after a couple of exports, and it does retain flexibility in the Share options.

The file extension is always supplemented by the iPhone share function with ".txt", so you will get a double extension (eg. ".tab.txt"), but this can still be useful if you're going to associate the extension with a particular desktop program - at least you only have to delete the last bit from the filename.

I may remove the extension from the TXT option, since iOS will add it anyway, but I'm not sure if other share options available to users may be able to use the filename as-is. I could also make the inclusion of the extension one of the options. Please let me know what people prefer.

The options you select will be saved in your preferences - they aren't linked to parameter records.

Once the export file is on your phone, use the iOS Files application to share it from your Downloads folder.


Importing Records to LibreOffice Calc

LibreOffice Calc will open any of the 3 file extensions (*.TXT, *.TAB, and *.CSV). I recommend the TAB option. This has the benefit that you can associate this file type with LibreOffice Calc, and import the file just by double-clicking it. When you do so, you are greeted with this dialog:



As you can see, Calc automatically recognises the Android UTF-8 text decoding, tab separator, and clicking OK will produce a nicely formatted sheet like this:



Notice that the degree symbol in column L has been correctly recognised by default.

Behaviour with CSV files is similar, but any *.TXT file will be opened with LibreOffice Writer unless you open Calc first and open the file from there.


Importing Records to Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel will open any of the 3 file extensions (*.TXT, *.TAB, and *.CSV), but associating any of these extensions with Excel doesn't work quite as well as LibreOffice Calc.

The problem is that any text files opened by association or using File Explorer's "Open With..." option, will be opened with a Windows ANSI text encoding. This means that degree symbols or any other extended characters will not appear correctly:



It can be seen that column L has an extra character inserted before the degree symbol.

Note that there's nothing wrong with the (Record)DateTime in column B; the column width just needs to be increased.

There is a more robust way to import text files from within Excel however. Click on the Data tab in Excel, and then select "Get Data" | "From File" | From Text/CSV:



Select the WIMS Export.* file, and the following dialog appears:



If you selected a TAB or TXT file, the tab-delimiter will be correctly identified automatically, but if you selected a CSV file then you will need to select "Comma".

Pressing the "Load" button will then import the exported file as a data connection and convert it to an Excel table:



Now the degree symbol is understood correctly and the column widths are correct.


Importing into Google Sheets

Google Sheets will import any of the three extension files with little effort. However, you need to create a new blank spreadsheet first, and then use the "File" | Import" menu option:



It takes a little while to do the import, but the results are as expected:




Importing into Mac Numbers


For Apple Mac, the best way to import the data is to save as a tab-delimited TXT file. This can be opened directly with Apple Numbers:

Apple Numbers sheet
Importing Consumables

In a typical fabrication shop, it would be very inconvenient for the consumables to have to be input on every individual device, particularly if there are several inspectors, or if the App is used by the welders themselves.

The shortcut methods require some analysis of the fabricator's weld procedure parameter data, and this makes it unrealistic to attempt to maintain the calculation constants within the WIMS development environment. If nothing else, there are the intellectual property rights, which most companies will want to retain within their organisation.

The WIMS app therefore allows companies to create tab-delimited text files that can be hosted via a secure URL. This can be on the internet or reside within a company intranet.

Under the tools menu, there is an option to save the current device consumables to a text file via the iOS share facility. The company welding engineer or coordinator can then host this file and use its URL to update individual inspectors' devices.

It's a 2-stage process; the user presses the Preview button to test the input and WIMS displays the result along with an analysis of whether the file looks suitable for import.

The Import button is only enabled if this is the case.

To enable testing of this feature, there are some additional consumable examples on the wims.org.uk site, and the URL is pre-filled. 

However, once setup in a company, a successful import from another URL will set this up as the new default, making it easy for inspectors to update with any new consumables later.

Import Consumables Screen

Planned Improvements

  • Better export functions
  • PREN calcs
  • High/Low acceptance criteria for welder monitoring
  • Cooling rate calculations - There are some in the Preheat Calculations screen, using the Bayoumi dimensionless method, but an additional screen is planned for other materials with a choice of calculation methods.
  • Text localisation, ie. support for other languages.


Revision History

1.0.1 (18) 31st December 2024
  • Accepted for the App Store
1.0.1 (18) 23rd December 2024
  • Release candidate 2 - minor change to field label to match Android version and user manual.
1.0.1 (17) 21st December 2024
  • Release candidate.

0.5.0 (14/15) 21st December 2024
  • Improved a couple of Dark mode colours, but main change in this version is that switching from/to Dark mode while using the App should be seamless now.
  • Fixed minor untrapped error in Consumables Import routine.
  • Fixed high value field colour in Light Mode.
0.5.0 (13) 21st December 2024
  • Basic Support for Dark Mode added.

0.5.0 (12) 18th December 2024
  • Details screen Notes minimum height increased for small screens.
0.5.0 (9) 17th December 2024
  • General Beta release


Licence & Costs

The WIMS for iPhone App is free for individuals to use, including business use.

However, if companies wish to deploy the App as part of their quality system (eg. for regular recording of parameters by Welding Engineers, Inspectors, or Welders), or require a customised version, please contact the author using the email link within the App, or message me on LinkedIn.

Conditions of use remain as per the Disclaimer agreement included in the App and as per the Apple App Store standard licence agreement.