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Explosive welding also known as explosive bonding or explosive

cladding is a solid state welding process, which uses a controlled
explosive detonation to force two metals together at high pressure. The
resultant composite system is joined with a durable, metallurgical
bond.The transition joint has high mechanical strength, is ultra-high
vacuum tight and can withstand drastic thermal excursions.Also
explosive welding is considered a cold-welding process which allows
metals to be joined without losing their pre-bonded properties.Explosive
welding allows for the greatest possible level of tubejoint integrity. It
allows the joining of almost any combination of metals and alloys for
tubes and tubesheets. The technology involves the impacting of the tube
into the tubehole at such high energy rates that the atoms share their
electrons across the interface, thus bonding the materials. In order to
produce uniform and consistently good quality welds the welding
parameters are to be optimized. The influence of these weld parameters
on bond strength and weld quality can beassessed using destructive and
non-destructive testing (NDT) methods. Weld joints between
Titanium/Steel and Cupronickel/steel, produced by explosive welding
technique have been investigated. Mechanical strength of the weld joints
has been determined by special tensile testing methods.
Explosive welding is an area of study that represents a truly
multidisciplinary research as it deals with the dynamics of collision at
high velocities and pressures, the transient fluid like behavior of metals
at extremely high strain rates, metallurgical and other physical aspects of
colliding metals, modeling of material behavior, sources of high rate
energy and the geometrical parameters of colliding system of metals.
Explosive welding under high velocity impact was probably first
recognized by Garl in 1944. Explosive welding was first recognized as a
possibility in 1957 in the United States when it was observed by
Philipchuck that metal sheets being explosively formed occasionally
stuck to the metal dies. Between that and now the process has been

developed fully with large applications in the manufacturing industry.It

has been found to be possible to weld together combinations of metals,
which are impossible, by other means.

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Unlike other forms of welding such as arc welding(which was developed
in the early 19th century), explosion welding was developed relatively
recently, in the decades after World War II. Its origins, however, go
back to World War I, when it was observed that pieces of sharpnel
sticking to armor plating were not only embedding themselves, but were
actually being welded to the metal. Since the extreme heat involved in
other forms of welding did not play a role, it was concluded that the
phenomenon was caused by the explosive forces acting on the shrapnel.
These results were later duplicated in laboratory tests and, not long
afterwards, the process was patented and put to use.
In 1962,DuPont applied for a patent on the explosion welding process,
which was granted in 1964 and resulted in the use of the x

trademark to describe the process. On July 22, 1996, Dynamic Materials
Corporation completed the acquisition of DuPont's Detaclad operations
for a purchase price of $5,321,850.



To form an explosive weld the following conditions need to occur:

* Two surfaces that need to be joined are initially spaced at a small
distance (standoff distance).
* An explosive force brings these two surfaces together progressively at
a collision front. The collision front's velocity must be lower than the
speed of sound in the materials, so that the shock wave precedes the
bond being formed. If not, the shockwave would interfere with the
contacted surfaces preventing a bond occurring.
* The interfacial pressure at the collision front must exceed the yield
strength of the materials, so that plastic deformation will occur.
A jet of metal is formed just ahead of the collision front, comprising of
the two component surfaces, which is finally ejected from the interface.

The surfaces and any surface contaminants are removed in the jet.
Behind the collision front, the now clean surfaces bond, under extreme
pressure, in the solid state. This dynamic welding situation is shown in
Fig.1. In cross section, the materials usually bond together in an
undulating wave form and the process can weld a parent plate of
thickness 0.025mm to over 1m (the maximum flyer plate thickness is
one third that of the parent plate). Up to 30m2 can be welded in
one explosion.

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. If this piece of metal collides at an angle with another piece of metal,
weldingmay occur. For welding to occur, a jetting action is required at the collision
interface. This jet is the product of the surfaces of the two pieces of metals
colliding. The jet formation aids metallurgical bonding, it causes the breakup of

the contaminant surface film and expels it from the point of collision and

it exposes virgin surfaces, which are brought into close contact as a

result of collision.This cleans the metals and allows to pure metallic
surfaces to join under extremely high pressure. The metals do not
commingle, they are atomically bonded. Due to this fact, any metal may
be welded to any metal (i.e.- copper to steel; titanium to stainless).
Typical impact pressures are millions of psi.

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The proper bonding parameters for a specific metal combination depend
upon the metal types, thicknesses and their mechanical properties.
Selection of the proper parameters is critical to assure a strong, high
quality ductile bond. The impact conditions during the angle bonding are
related by the following equation:
m

= 2 m( / 2) m
where,
Vp = Impact point velocity.
Vd = Detonation velocity.
=Impact angle.
mmmmxm=Stand off gap.

During welding, the impact point velocity Vp is equal to the detonation

velocity Vd. The collision plate velocity Vp, depends upon metal types,
physical and mechanical properties and chemical compatibility. The
bond parameters hence are dependent on the explosive detonation rate
and standoff distance.
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The selection of an explosive that will produce the required detonation
velocity is important for obtaining consistently good welds. The
explosive must also provide uniform detonation so as to
achieve a collision velocity that will be uniform from the start to the
finish of the weld. The explosive type and amount per unit area is
selected to achieve the necessary detonation energy and detonation

velocity. One of the important process parameters in explosion welding

is the amount of explosive used to affect the collision between the plates.
For a particular explosive, the collision velocity of the flyer plate is also
a function of the quantity of the explosive charge. As the explosive is
detonated, part of its chemical energy dissipates in air and part of it is
transferred to the flyer
plate in the form of kinetic energy. Excessive loading causes the kinetic
energy to heat up the interface such that the temperature rise is enough
to cause interfacial melting. These solidified melt pockets may have a
deleterious effect on the bond strength. These bonded plates would then
be taken up for
1) fabrication of heat exchanger used in the marine environment.
2) fabrication of an electrolytic dissolver cell handling acids of
high concentration.
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Explosive welding provides tube plugging, tube expansion, tube to !m



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1) Joining of pipes and tubes.

2) Major areas of the use of this method are heat exchanger tube
sheets and pressure vessels.
3) Tube Plugging.
4) Remote joining in hazardous environments.
5) Joining of dissimilar metals - Aluminium to steel, Titanium alloys
to Cr Ni steel, Cu to stainless steel, Tungsten to Steel, etc.
6) Attaching cooling fins.
7) Other applications are in chemical process vessels, ship building
industry, cryogenic industry, etc.


 

1) Can bond many dissimilar, normally unweldable metals.

2) Minimum fixturing/jigs.
3) Simplicity of the process.
4) Extremely large surfaces can be bonded.
5) Wide range of thicknesses can be explosively clad together.
6) No effect on parent properties.

7) Small quantity of explosive used.





1) The metals must have high enough impact resistance, and ductility.
2) Noise and blast can require operator protection, vacuum chambers,
buried in sand/water.
3) The use of explosives in industrial areas will be restricted by the
noise and ground vibrations caused by the explosion.
4) The geometries welded must be simple flat, cylindrical, conical.
5) Explosive welding requires a remote location, has the danger of
handling and storing explosives and therefore needs strict
security.
6) The technique is restricted to a batch process which limits the speed
of weld production.

Conclusion
Three-staging of formation of strong bonds between the atoms of welded
metals is established: activation of contact surfaces; formation of
physical contact; volume impact and plastic deformation behind the
contact point.

  m
 alpakjian, Serope; Schmid, Steven R (2006). 
m  mm

 (5th ed.).

 m .
 Explosion Welding Technology. Dynamic Materials Corporation. 2005.
 oung, G (2004). Explosion Welding, Technical Growth and Commercial History
(PDF). Dynamic Materials Corporation.
 Explosion Welding of Dissimilar Metals. High Energy Metals, Inc.

 Joshi, Amit (2000-10-02). Introduction to Explosive Welding. Metal Web News.

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