WELDING PROCESSES FOR PIPING AND OFF-SHORE STRUCTURES

Dr. A. Raja Welding Research Institute BHEL, Trichy.

PIPE WELDING MAJOR CATEGORIES

Pressure or power piping:

e.g., Thermal & Nuclear power stations. Code: ASME sec IX

Cross country pipelines:

e.g., Oil / gas transmission pipeline Code: API 1104

Sub-Critical piping
e.g.,Compressed air line etc.

Areas of Application

Pipe Welding Positions

Welding in vertical position

Weaving pattern for Vertical position welding

 Line pipe is delivered in 12 m length. Some pipe mills now supply in 18 and 24 m length with 30 - 35 deg factory bevel and08 - 2.4 mm root face.

Principal Welding Processes Employed

SMAW GTAW GMAW FCAW SAW GPW

Position of welding Wall thickness Pipe Diameter

SMAW

SMAW
Equipment used is simple, inexpensive and portable. Lower sensitivity to wind and drafts than gas shielded welding processes. All position capability.

SMAW Pipe welding Techniques

Vertical-up with basic electrode [E7018] Joints requiring high quality root run Electrode dia. 2.5 or 3.15 mm. Use short arc length. V - shaped weave pattern. Vertical-up with rutile electrode [E6130] Joints: acceptance criteria is not stringent Key hole technique for root. Whipping action in the vertical up quadrant.

SMAW Pipe welding Techniques

Vertical-down with cellulosic electrode [E6010] Concentrated arc provides deep penetration. Allows use of narrow root gaps. Effective shielding in windy conditions. Thin slag cover allows fast welding. For root- small crescent shaped keyhole. No electrode weaving. Drag action is used. Poor hydrogen control.

Root pass welding by forming a keyhole in 1.6 mm root gap - downhill welding

Root pass welding vertical-up requires 3.0 mm root gap, smaller electrode and large weld volume.

Loss of Diffusible Hydrogen from weldmetal of E8010.

Hot pass welding avoids hydrogen cracking

Sufficient hydrogen.
A hard microstructure.

Stress and
A temperature below about 150 - 200 deg. C

Code requirement
API 1104 - Standard for welding pipe lines and related facilities. The time lapse between finishing the weld root pass and starting the hot pass is one of the essential variables. BS 4515- Welding of steel pipelines on land and offshore. Time lapse between start of the root run and start of the second run

Electrode selection

Edge preparation for manual welding

TIG Welding

TIG WELDING
Benefits:

Superior Quality Welds. Welds can be made with or without filler metal.
Precise control of welding variables.

Free of spatters.

TIG welding limitation

Lower deposition rate.

Requires greater welder dexterity than

SMAW or MIG.

Uneconomical for welding thick sections.

MIG welding
Benefits:

All position capability.

Higher deposition rate than SMAW.

Lesser operator skill required.

Long welds can be made without

starts and stops.

Minimal post weld cleaning is required.

Effect of Mode of Metal Transfer on Plate Fusion

MAG welding with

Short circuit transfer mode

Pipe welding with STT process

STT Waveform

Pulsed MIG welding

FCAW

Flux Cored wire configurations

Semi automatic Flux Cored Arc welding

Root pass welded with metal cored wires. Operates in dip transfer mode. Include small amounts of fluxing agents

and arc stabilisers.

1.2 mm wire can be used in place of 0.9 mm.

Modern flux cored wires. 5ml/100gm.

1%Ni wires.Good CVN value down to 40 deg. C. Rutile wire [0.8] in spray mode - capping pass

Flux Cored Arc welding

Benefits:

All position capability.

Good quality weldmetal deposit.

Higher deposition rate than SMAW.

Low operator skill required.

Metallurgical benefits that can be gained

from a flux.

ADVANTAGES OF ORBITAL PIPE WELDING

HIGHER DEPOSITION RATE IMPROVED WELD QUALITY

HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY
REDUCED LABOUR COST OBVIATES THE NEED FOR SKILLED WELDERS

Welding process

Welding speed

SMAW Low Hydrogen SMAW Cellulosic. Semi automatic GMAW. Fully automatic GMAW from outside using Cu backing. Fully automatic GMAW root from inside & other passes from outside.

140 mm/min 300 mm/min 350 mm/min 1000 mm/min 1250 mm/min

Orbital TIG Welding Head

Orbital TIG welding system

Welding in overhead position

Installation of cross country pipeline

Double Jointing / Triple Jointing

Depends on

access to the site. Welding off- line permits flat position welding. SAW process can be used. Recently Flux Cored wires are used for SAW.

Wire Feeder on Floor- Type

Uses 12.5 kg spool

Ideal for shop use with smaller work piece

Wire Feeder on Head Type

Uses 5 kg spool Ideal for field erection

WIRE feeder on Head

Pendular Oscillator Bracket for fillet and socket weld

Edge preparation for mechanised welding

Typical Orbital MIG procedure

Double V Joint Preparation. Internal Root welding [six bugs].

[ Broader fit-up tolerance]

External hot pass welding. Fill and capping passes Wire 1.0 mm dia E70S-6

Positioning the internal welder

Root pass from inside using automatic GMAW

Limitations: There is a min.pipe dia. for ID welding. Operator correction not possible. Equipment expensive.

Orbital GMA Welding from outside from 12 to 6 O clock position.

Shack for protecting the welding

Operator making minor changes during welding.

Orbital MAG Welding with

fuzzy controlled power source

Typical FCAW procedure

Root pass by GMAW with E70S-6. Hot pass by GMAW with E70S-6. Remaining passes by FCAW. Flux Cored Wire 1.2 mm dia. E81T1 - Ni1. CO2 gas shielding.

Orbital welding of pipe using GMAW / FCAW processes

Productivity advantages of Orbital pipe welding

Dual torch welding head

Advantages of dual torch GMAW

Deposits two passes simultaneously.

400 joints/day on 1060mm pipe.

492 joints/day on 609 mm pipe.

Higher dep. Rate [ 1.4 times of SW GMAW]

Higher travel speed. Required only 4 pass to fill 12mm wall thickness. SW GMAW 5 passes.

TWIN Torch GMAW Higher dep. Rate

Higher travel speed than dual torch

Forge Welding Processes

Flash butt welding

Homo-polar pulse welding Magnetically impelled arc welding. Radial friction welding.

Flash butt welding Process is suitable, included in API 1104. Improvements in conventional welding overshadowed. Scatter and occasional lower CVN values.

Homo-polar pulse welding It is a resistance welding process. A homopolar generator is used to

deliver a single very high DC pulse.

Weld operatio takes only 2 - 3 sec.

Very high capital investment.

Magnetically impelled arc welding

It is high temp. forge welding process.

Suitable for joining small diameter,

thin wall steel pipes.

The rotating arc does not heat the full

wall thickness.

Radial Friction welding

A radial compression ring is rotated

between two stationary pipes.

The ring is rotated while under compression, so heat is generated. Friction weld is created between the ring and the two pipes. An internal mandrel prevents internal flash. Used for joining pipes from 150 to 300 mm.

Radial friction Welding