PULSED MIG CLAD AND OVERLAY WELDS: I hope your company does not make pulsed MIG Inconel

clad welds like this.

USA power station, boiler water wall being destroyed by poor manual pused MIG clad weld equipment - practices and of course apathetic weld management.

Above Photo: This sad approach to placing welds on boiler water wall tubes, was proudly displayed on the cover of a 2008 USA welding magazine. The magazine clad article was about the wonderful, new, 2008 pulsed MIG equipment available from Miller Electric and the suitability of this equipment to this Inconel clad application. The reality is, these clad stringer welds indicate, bad weld practices, this is not the way to produce water wall clad welds with either Inconel or Stainless MIG weld wires. The clad welds in the photo reveal a poor pulsed MIG program, poor clad weld practices and poor weld techniques. These narrow, clad welds will create inconsistent, unnecessary weld over lap, poor and excess weld tie ins, inconsistent clad dilution, excess start stops, and their will be extensive lack of clad weld fusion. This operation will result in excess distortion, uneven wear, unnecessary stress risers all leading to reduced boiler operation efficiency and longevity..

Ed's USA / European patented MIG weld process control approach to boiler water wall clad weld. These welds were made with a $5000 (2005) pulsed power source.

2006: Inconel 622 on Boiler Water Walls. Weld section from 300 sq/ft clad section.

Ed's contribution to the Power and Waste Management Industries.

2006: Welding Services (WSI) now Aquilex Atlanta: WSI is primarily involved in repairs and refurbishment in the power, waste energy and nuclear industries. In terms of water wall clad welding, WSI used to clad approx. 80% of the North American boilers. Each year WSI uses approx. one million pounds of Inconel 625-622 and 300 series stainless MIG wires for cladding boiler water wall tubes.
2006: ED WAS REQUESTED TO DEVELOP A NEW WATER WALL CLAD PATENT: While WSI has produced some of the most innovative, automatic MIG cladding equipment available in North America, WSI did not have a resident MIG process control expert who had the expertise necessary to make radical improvements to it's water wall

clad MIG welds. Ed was contracted for this work by PA the WSI engineering manager. In less than 6 months, as the following pictures indicate, Ed dramatically improved the water wall overlay weld quality and a new USA and European clad weld patent was developed.

AS MOST ARE AWARE, WITH ALL CLAD WELDS, THE MOST DESIRABLE WELD ATTRIBUTE IS THE LEAST POSSIBLE WELD LESS DILUTION:

IMPROVING WATER WALL BOILER LIFE - OPERATING EFFICIENCY:

As many in the power industry are aware, with any water wall clad weld application "less is always better". With less clad weld shrinkage and less clad weld defects, the boiler water walls will operate more efficiently when the single pass clad weld surface is as thin as possible and when the clad weld pass thickness is both uniform and free of weld defects. The traditional methods of both manual and automated clad welds on boilers would produce clad welds that too often had too much weld filler, lacked uniformity, had poor weld tie ins and had extensive lack of fusio. The Inconel clad filler metals typically can cost over $23 - $26 LB. With these costly weld wires, it makes no sense to produce excess weld and create excess stresses and deformation on the boiler walls. My new clad patent dramatically improved the single pass clad weld quality and dramatically reduced the typical single pass clad weld thickness providing extensive clad cost savings from the reduced weld wire requirements: DRAMATIC REDUCTION IN CONSUMABLE WELD COSTS PER-OPERATION. With Inconel clad wires at $23 - $26LB and large water wall areas to be clad, the clad weld consumable costs are typically a large part of the cost of a boiler clad application costs. My new pulsed MIG procedures reduced the amount of clad single pass, clad weld overlay by approx. 28%.

WITH SINGLE PASSNCLAD WELDS YOU HAVE TO CONSISTENTLY PROVIDE MINIMUM CLAD WELD DILUTION: With water wall clad applications, the minimum, "single pass" Inconel weld clad chemistry required is 20% chrome. As the filler metal typically provides approx 21% chrome To attain the minimum chrome requirements, the

pulsed MIG weld procedures with the vertical down clad welds consistently attained minimum weld dilution < 8%, while achieving consistent weld fusion on the carbon steel boiler tubes.

WITH LARGE WATER WALL AREAS SOMETIMES OVER 1000 sq/ft, THE CLAD PROCESS NEEDS TO ATTAIN THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE WELD DEPOSITION RATES: The primary part of clad weld costs on large weld areas as found with most clad boiler wall applications, is dictated by the MIG weld deposition rates attained. Ed's new patented clad procedure with the unique, WSI automated weld equipment, enabled a single operator controlling two guns to deposit approx. 28 - 30 lbs/hr.

Unless you sell clad weld consumables, with clad boiler welds, less is better.

Before Ed got involved with boiler water wall welds, the picture below was considered an optimum, Inconel 622, Vertical Down, Pulsed MIG, water wall, clad application.

Below, untouched the new clad patent showing obvious clad weld quality

After a few months of pulsed MIG weld process development. The final Inconel 622, single pass, clad weld results were developed by Ed for WSI in 2006 and the international USA patent was introduced in 2010.

Note the smooth single layer MIG clad surface with optimum weld ties ins. This clad application was delivered from a low cost, $5000 pulsed MIG power source in 2006. This clad weld has a smooth finish similar to a $250.000 laser - powder clad overlay. In contrast to the conventional water wall clad welds, Ed's process changes required 25 28 % less weld metal per sq/ft and for the single pass weld also produced less weld dilution producing superior clad chemistry.

SPATTER WITH ANY MIG MODE IS USUALLY AN INDICATION OF LACK OF PROCESS CONTROL

Weld process expertise will always ensure that any weld process utilized runs without concern for weld spatter.

2006: Ed's patented weld on the left. Typical clad welds on the right:

A UNIQUE INCONEL CLAD MIG GAS MIX DEVELOPED BY ED

The vertical down 622 Inconel / stainless clad MIG welds in Ed's patent were derived from a low cost, five thousand dollar, pulsed MIG power source and a unique Inconel MIG gas mix developed by Ed. (See the MIG gas data section at this site).

The patent would not have been possible without the WSI, customized. automated weld equipment that compensated for the wire stick out variations that resulted from the water wall curves.

Why would any respectable engineer allow $23 - $26 LB, POOR Inconel clad welds like this on a power station boiler wall that costs million of dollars?.

Ed provided unique MIG Water Wall Clad Welds in the 1980's.

In the 1980s, twenty years before the development of decent pulsed MIG equipment, Ed produced the Inconel 622 MIG clad weld shown in the left photo (cross section of a

boiler tube). In his clad weld there was no metallurgical evidence of a heat affected zone as evidence in the macro. In contrast on the right photo we have the typical MIG clad weld fusion profiles that the power industry and it's water wall boilers were accustomed to in 1980 and in 2008.

The Inconel clad weld shown on the left macro was made by Ed - Zugy without any cooling medium and made with a MIG power source and process developed in 1963.

622 and a Unique Controlled Short Circuit Clad Weld made 1983

Don't try the above weld with your 2013 pulsed MIG power source as you will not achive a clad weld without a heat affected zone. This 622 MIG clad weld made by Ed and and his good buddy Zugy. The macro surprised the Foster Wheeler senior metallurgist who examined it, as their was no evidence of the 622 weld dilution with the carbon steel base alloy, and no evidence of the clad weld heat affected zone.

Don't try this in your weld shop..

WITHOUT MIG EQUIPMENT BELLS AND WHISTLES WE PRODUCED SOME REMARKABLE WELDS: We never had MIG equipment bells and whistles in the 1980s, yet we did have weld process expertise and low cost MIG weld equipment developed in the 1960s. In those days we were producing welds that are still are not produced 30 years later. In 1980 if you wanted a small vessel made from aluminum bronze you ordered a solid bar stock and spent many hours ID and OD machining, or you had it cast at a foundry and waited 6 months. Of course you could have or called Ed and his good buddy Zugy and they would show you how with a few pounds on alum bronze 0.045 weld wire, in a few hours you could make the part strictly out of weld metal as shown on the left. If you needed a small vessel comprised of two different alloys such as the machined piece show above, with this part the customer want one half made out of Hastelloy and the other half made out of 316 stainless. With the Hastelloy Stainless part, you could have spent weeks figuring out how to make it and a small fortune in machining, or you could have called Ed and Zugy and in less than a day the product would have been made from Hastelloy and stainless MIG weld wire and of course the parts would pass any X-Ray evaluation. Of course if you wanted to find the holy grail of welding, Ed and Zugy would have taken some Titanium weld wire and in three hours made the above chalice again free of defects from a Titanium MIG weld wire.

Cladding and Hydro-Processing Vessels

2006: 347 clad welds. Another common global clad application overlay application influenced by Ed:

The Electro Slag Strip Electrode Process applying ER 347 clad welds.

Above a common Electro Slag Common Application. In the refinery industry, pressure vessels used in high temperature, high pressure "hydrogen service" such as hydrocracking and hydrotreating are usually constructed of Chrome / Molly or Vanadium modified Chrome / Moly steels. To overcome corrosion areas with these vessels, clad welds of ER 347 alloy are typically applied to plate or to wasted areas on pressure vessels. The most common, global cladding "process" utilized for plate cladding used for hydrogen service, has been the Electro Slag Welding (ESW). This process uses strip electrodes two to three inches wide. On some applications a butter layer of ER 309 is requested followed by a surface layer of ER 347 for the clad surface. On other applications a single layer of ER 347 is applied. With the ESW process, high deposition welds result from weld current > 600 amps. The ESW process has been considered unique in that the large size of the strip electrode results in low weld current density resulting in "low weld dilution". The down side of th ESW clad process is; [a] The ESW is a "single" electrode process, [b] ESW requires a large equipment package, it's cumbersome and weld position restricted, [c] the cost of the ESW clad consumables and fluxes are high,

[d] there are few companies with ESW expertise. [F] Many North American vessels are ESW clad in Japan.

Utilizing a unique MIG weld wire found by Ed, and cladding equipment developed by WSI, Ed produced "single pass", MIG layer clad 347 welds that met the hydrogen service 347 clad thickness, chemistry and ferrite requirements. In comparison to the ESW and SAW process, thanks to the large differences in consumable costs and the multi MIG gun capability, it's now possible in contrast to the ESW process to produce the 347 MIG clad welds, depending on the application with a 30 to 50% cost reduction.

In contrast to the much more costly ESW and SAW processes, the single pass MIG clad procedure developed by Ed and WSI enables cladding on a much wider range of applications, and allows the flexibility to provide the vessel cladding at any site locations with the vessel in any position. This weld flexability dramatically reduces the vessel lead times or shipping costs to have this clad work done.

ED'S MIG PROCESS CONTROL EXPERTISE CHANGED THIS TRADITIONAL GLOBAL 347 ELECTRO SLAG AND SAW WELD CLAD APPLICATION.

From ESW to Ed's 347 single pass MIG clad weld.

To a clad MIG process that's faster, provides less distortion, has less heat effect on the steel, costs less and is much more versatile.

Today with TiP TiG and some pulsed MIG equipment,

in 2013 we can go where no man has gone before,

however if you have to take weld advice from salesman, or your weld personnel "play" with weld settings, you are no better off than you were in a weld shop in the 1960s and your weld issues may be costly... When you have a clad welding challenges on those ID-OD power plant, refinery, and well head equipment such as ID welds on adapter flanges,bonnets, studded tees, tree caps, weld neck flanges, gate valves, please note, you can invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in sophisticated overlay equipment and never quite get that application the way it could be. You could ask a salesman for your pulsed clad MIG advice, or you could learn how to control this important process and produce clad welds without weld rework.

It helps to have weld control process expertise.

Without question the worlds best process for clad welds is at

TIP-TIG

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