Patent Grant
9527152
The present systems and methods relate generally to the field of welding systems, and particularly to flux-cored arc welding systems with self-shielded electrodes (FCAW-S).
Welding is a process that has become ubiquitous in various industries for a variety of applications. For example, welding is often used in applications such as shipbuilding, offshore platform, construction, pipe mills, and so forth. Arc welding systems generally apply electrical current to an electrode to form an arc between the electrode and a workpiece, thereby forming a weld deposit on the workpiece. In general, the electrode may be a continuous, welding wire that is advanced the welding system to reach the workpiece. Further, the chemical composition and physical state of the components of the welding wire may significantly affect the quality of the weld.
During flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), for example, as the electrode and the workpiece are heated by the arc, a portion of the electrode and a portion of the workpiece may melt and mix to form a weld deposit. For certain welding applications, the parts of the workpiece being welded together may be set a distance apart. By specific example, during root pass welding of a pipe, the root pass weld may fuse portions of the pipe together across the root opening; however, the root opening adds complexity to the welding process. For example, during root pass welding, a backing may be used to support the molten material in the root opening during the welding operation, which may increase the cost and time associated with each weld operation. Additionally, during root pass welding, a shielding gas may be used to displace the ambient environment surrounding the molten weld deposit to improve the properties of the weld deposit (e.g., limiting porosity and embrittlement). However, using a shielding gas increases the weight, complexity, and cost of the welding system.
In an embodiment, a tubular welding wire includes a core and a sheath disposed around the core. Further, the tubular welding wire includes greater than approximately 2.4% glassy slag promoter by weight.
In another embodiment, a method of manufacturing a welding electrode includes providing a granular core, wherein providing the granular core includes mixing a first agglomerate and a second agglomerate with a glassy slag promoter. The method further includes disposing the granular core within a metallic sheath to form the welding electrode, wherein the welding electrode comprises greater than approximately 2.4% glassy slag promoter by weight.
In another embodiment, a welding method includes feeding a welding wire into a welding apparatus and forming a weld deposit of at least part of the welding wire on a workpiece in a short circuit transfer mode. The method further includes supplying current to the welding apparatus in a plurality of phases. The plurality of phases includes a ball phase configured to form a molten ball at an end of the welding wire and to push a weld pool into the workpiece by increasing the current to a first current level.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:
One or more specific embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
As set forth above, during root pass welding, the root opening introduces complexity to the welding process. For example, during typical root pass welding, a backing may be used to support the molten material in the root opening during the welding operation and a shielding gas may be used to displace the ambient environment surrounding the molten weld deposit. However, as mentioned above, the use of a backing and/or shielding gas adds complexity, weight, and cost to the welding system and the welding operation.
As such, present embodiments include tubular welding wires that may generally improve root pass welding via the elimination of the backing, the shielding gas, or both, from root pass welding operations and/or other similar welding operations. Accordingly, the presently disclosed tubular welding wire embodiments include a number of components that generally alter the welding process and/or the properties of the resulting weld. For example, in certain embodiments, one or more components of the tubular welding wire may provide a shielding atmosphere near the welding arc when heated, affect the transfer properties of the welding arc, deoxidize and/or denitrify the surface of the workpiece, and/or other desirable effects. Further, certain components of the self-shielding tubular welding wire, such as certain oxides (e.g., silicon dioxide) may be configured to positively reinforce the weld pool during the welding operation, enabling certain embodiments of the presently disclosed tubular welding wire to perform open root pass welds without a backing.
Accordingly, presently disclosed welding system and method embodiments enable a self-shielding flux-cored arc welding system (FCAW-S) to perform open root pass welding without a backing and/or without an external shielding gas supply. As such, the disclosed FCAW-S welding system embodiments may be less complex, lighter in weight, and/or have a lower cost than a welding system utilizing an external shielding gas supply. Furthermore, it may be appreciated that, in addition to the features provided by the welding wire, it may be desirable for the welding process of the welding system to have certain characteristics as well. For example, embodiments of the presently disclosed welding system may be configured to use a short circuit transfer mode (e.g., Regulated Metal Deposition mode, RMD™) that provides full control of the current for the duration of the welding operation (e.g., to control the deposition of a portion of the welding wire on the workpiece). For example, in certain embodiments, using the aforementioned current control, the welding system may be configured to deposit the weld metal in a droplet or fine droplet short circuit transfer mode with a relatively low spatter rate. Further, in certain embodiments, as set forth in detail below, the current may be reduced immediately prior to clearing the short circuit to reduce the spatter produced by the arc after clearance.
With the foregoing in mind,
The base unit 16 powers, controls, and supplies consumables to the welding torch 14 for a welding application. The wire feeder 30 supplies the tubular welding wire 12 from an electrode supply 32 (e.g., spool) to the torch 14. The power supply 20 may include circuit elements (e.g., transformers, rectifiers, switches, and so forth) capable of converting AC input power to a direct current electrode positive (DCEP) output, direct current electrode negative (DCEN) output, DC variable polarity, pulsed DC, or a variable balance (e.g., balanced or unbalanced) AC output, as dictated by the demands of the welding system 10. In some embodiments, the power supply 20 may be a constant current power source.
It should be appreciated that the presently disclosed base unit 16 may enable improvements when performing an open root welding process. For example, to precisely control the deposition of molten material from the tubular welding wire 12 onto the workpiece 18 (e.g., joint 72), the control circuitry 28 controls the power supply 20 and the wire feeder 28. The control circuitry 28 may control the power supplied to the welding torch 14 by adjusting the voltage and current waveforms supplied to the welding torch 14. In certain embodiments, the control circuitry 28 may control the power supply 20 to supply power to the welding torch 14 at a desired power level through a series phases, which may define the transfer mode (e.g., a droplet or small droplet transfer mode) of the tubular welding wire 12. The power supply 20 may provide the desired power level to the welding torch 14 by rapidly adjusting the current and voltage supplied to the torch 14. The control circuitry 28 may monitor the supply voltage and current with a voltage sensor 34 and a current sensor 36.
By varying the voltage and current supplied to the welding torch 14 illustrated in
As illustrated in
As mentioned above, by controlling the composition of the tubular welding wire 12, certain chemical and mechanical properties of the resulting weld deposit may be varied. For example, as set forth in detail below, the tubular welding wire 12 may include components to react with and remove undesired species (e.g., oxygen and/or nitrogen) from the weld environment. In certain embodiments, the tubular welding wire 12 may further provide alloying components (e.g., copper, molybdenum, silicon, carbon, or other suitable alloying components) to the weld pool, affecting the mechanical properties, such as the strength and/or toughness of the weld deposit. Furthermore, certain components of the tubular welding wire 12 may also provide shielding atmosphere near the arc 22, affect the transfer properties of the arc 22, clean the surface of the workpiece 18, and so forth.
With the foregoing in mind, a cross-section 50 of an embodiment of the presently disclosed tubular welding wire 12 is illustrated in
The granular core 54 of the illustrated tubular welding wire 50 may generally be a compacted powder with a composition that, as discussed in detail below, includes various components that each may serve at least one role (e.g., as a shielding gas agents, alloying agents, etc.) during the welding process. Further, the components of the granular core 54 may be homogenously or non-homogenously (e.g., in clumps or clusters 56) disposed within the granular core 54. In certain embodiments, the granular core 54 may be between approximately 11% to 24%, approximately 13% to 15%, or approximately 14% of the total weight of the tubular welding wire 50. For certain embodiments of the disclosed tubular welding wire, the granular core 54 may account for less than 15% of the total weight of the tubular welding wire 50, which may be significantly less than the cores of other welding wires. For such embodiments, the relatively low increases the capability of the tubular welding wire 50 to produce a quality weld across the open root.
Tables 1 and 2, set forth below, include various embodiments of the tubular welding wire 12 illustrated in
As set forth in Table 1, embodiments E1-E9 include a granular core 54 having various components that each may serve at least one role as shielding gas agents, alloying agents, and deoxidizing/denitrifying agents during the welding process. It should be appreciated that, while a particular component may be designated as a particular agent in Table 1, the component may also serve other roles during the welding process. For example, as set forth in greater detail below, aluminum may serve as denitrifying agent (e.g., to react with and remove nitrogen from the weld pool), but may also, to some degree, act as deoxidizing agent (e.g., to react with and remove oxygen from the weld pool) and an alloying agent (e.g., to affect the mechanical properties of the weld deposit).
As set forth in Table 1, the granular core 54 may include between approximately 0.4% and approximately 0.6% calcium carbonate as a shielding gas agent by weight of the tubular welding wire 50. As such, at least a portion of the calcium carbonate may decompose under arc conditions to generate CO2 shielding gas. Accordingly, embodiments E1-E9 may be used as FCAW-S welding wires without the use of an external shielding gas, which may reduce the complexity and cost of the welding system 10 as well as the welding operation. However, it should be appreciated that embodiments E1-E9 may also be used in conjunction with an external shielding gas (e.g., in a GMAW system) without deteriorating the quality of the weld deposit.
As set forth in Table 1, the granular core 54 may include between approximately 1% and approximately 12% alloying and filler agents (e.g., nickel, manganese, and iron metal powders) by weight of the tubular welding wire 50. In particular, embodiments E1-E9 include between 1% and 2% by weight nickel and manganese powders, while embodiment E9 includes an additional 10% by weight iron powder as filler. It may be appreciated that at least a portion of the alloying and filler agents may be incorporated into the weld deposit during the welding operation, affecting the mechanical properties (e.g., strength, ductility, and/or toughness) of the weld deposit. However, as mentioned above, a portion of the aluminum powder may also be incorporated into the weld deposit to affect the resulting mechanical properties.
As set forth in Table 1, the granular core 54 may include between approximately 7% and approximately 10% deoxidizing/denitrifying agents (e.g., aluminum powder, Li/Mn/Fe agglomerate, and Li/Si/Fe agglomerate) by weight of the tubular welding wire 50. The chemical composition of the Li/Mn/Fe and the Li/Si/Fe agglomerates are discussed in detail below. As mentioned, deoxidizing/denitrifying agents react with and remove nitrogen and/or oxygen from the weld pool to generally reduce weld porosity and embrittlement. However, as mentioned above, aluminum may also serve a role as, for example, an alloying agent. Similarly, other components of the agglomerates (e.g., sodium compounds, potassium compounds, lithium compounds) may also serve to stabilize the arc during the welding process.
In certain embodiments, increasing the lithium content of the granular core 54 may enable the aluminum content of the granular core 54 to be decreased without substantially affecting the capability of the core to limit the nitrogen and/or oxygen incorporation into the weld. Additionally, in such circumstances, reducing the aluminum in the weld pool, may strengthen the resulting weld deposit. Additionally, in certain embodiments, the tubular welding wire 50 may include between approximately 3% to approximately 4%, or between approximately 0.9% to approximately 1.3% aluminum by weight of the tubular welding wire 50. Further, lithium fluoride and lithium oxide (e.g., from the Li/Mn/Fe and the Li/Si/Fe agglomerates) may desirably lower the melting point when forming an alumina base slag. Additionally, in certain embodiments, lithium oxide alone may account for greater than approximately 0.4%, greater than 0.8%, or greater than 1% of the tubular welding wire 50 by weight.
Further, as set forth in Table 1, the granular core 54 may include between approximately 1.8% and approximately 2.8% slag forming agents (e.g., rutile sand, iron oxide, manganous oxide, silica sand, and/or silicon dioxide) by weight of the tubular welding wire 50. It may be appreciated that certain slag forming components may affect, among other things, the viscosity of the weld pool. As used herein, glassy slag promoter may denote one or more components of the tubular welding wire 50 may promote a lower melting point, glassy slag that does not deform the back bead during the welding operation. In other words, the use of glassy slag promoters, like SiO2, may provide a continuously reinforced, substantially uniform weld bead, and may allow the slag to flow and congeal without substantial deformation (e.g., indentation) and/or weld fusion interference to the workpiece (e.g., avoiding cold-lapping). For example, silicon dioxide (SiO2) (e.g., from one or more of silica sand, the fine silicon dioxide, and/or the agglomerates, as set forth in Table 1) may promote a lower melting point, glassy slag that fluxes and congeals without interfering with the weld fusion interface. As such, in certain embodiments, the glassy slag promoter in a tubular welding wire 50 is silicon dioxide. It may be appreciated that other oxides (e.g., titanium dioxide, a borate, sodium oxide) are believed to also be useful for promoting a glassy slag. Accordingly, in other embodiments, the glassy slag promoter may be a mixture of two or more oxide species (e.g., silicon dioxide and sodium oxide).
In certain embodiments, the glassy slag promoter (e.g., SiO2, titanium dioxide, a borate, sodium oxide, or another suitable oxide) may be configured to increase the capability of the FCAW-S system 10 to perform open root welds (e.g., without the use of a backing) via this positive reinforcement of the weld pool. For certain embodiments of the tubular welding wire 50, the granular core 54 may include greater than approximately 1.6%, greater than approximately 1.8%, or greater than approximately 2% glassy slag promoter by weight of the tubular welding wire 50. Indeed, certain embodiments of the presently disclosed tubular welding wire 50 may include a substantially higher (e.g., 5 to 10 times higher) glassy slag promoter content (e.g., SiO2 content) than other self-shielding welding wires. As set forth in Table 2, in certain embodiments, the formed granular core 54 may include a glassy slag promoter (e.g., SiO2) in amounts greater than approximately 1%, greater than approximately 2%, greater than approximately 3%, or between approximately 2.5% and approximately 3.5% relative to the weight of the tubular welding wire 50.
Furthermore, as mentioned above, in certain embodiments, one or more components may be prepared and included in the granular core 54 as agglomerates e.g., sintered and/or formed into frits). It should be noted that the term “agglomerate” or “frit,” as used herein, refers to a mixture of compounds that have been fired or heated in a calciner or oven such that the components of the mixture are in intimate contact with one another. It should be appreciated that the agglomerate or frit may have subtly or substantially different chemical and/or physical properties than the individual components of the mixture used to form the agglomerate. For example, an agglomerate may generally be better suited for the weld environment (e.g., drier and/or better powder flow) than a non-agglomerated form of the same component.
With the foregoing in mind, as set forth in Table 1, embodiments E1-E9 each incorporate two agglomerates, namely the Li/Si/Fe agglomerate and Li/Mn/Fe agglomerate. For example, in certain embodiments, the Li/Si/Fe agglomerate may have a chemical composition that includes approximately 18.7% lithium oxide, approximately 61.6% iron oxides, approximately 0.2% sodium oxide and approximately 19.5% silicon dioxide. Further, the Li/Si/Fe agglomerate may be formed by heating a mixture including approximately 16.3% water, approximately 30% iron oxides, approximately 1.3% sodium silicate, approximately 12.3% silica, approximately 10.1% iron oxide (e.g., purified Fe2O3), approximately 30% lithium carbonate, to approximately 1700° F. for approximately 2 hours.
In certain embodiments, the Li/Mn/Fe agglomerate may have a chemical composition that includes approximately 10.85% lithium oxide, approximately 24.84% lithium fluoride, approximately 53.1% iron oxides, approximately 0.29% sodium oxide, approximately 1.22% silicon dioxide, 0.31% alumina, and 9.39% manganous oxide. Further, the Li/Mn/Fe agglomerate may be formed by first forming an intermediate agglomerate by heating a mixture including approximately 16.44% water, approximately 1.32% sodium silicate, approximately 48.29% iron oxide (e.g., purified Fe2O3), approximately 24.5% lithium carbonate, and approximately 9.45% manganous oxide to approximately 1700° F. for approximately 2 hours. The Li/Mn/Fe agglomerate may then be formed by heating a mixture including approximately 73.8% of the intermediate agglomerate, approximately 24.6% purified (e.g., precipitated grade) lithium fluoride, and approximately 1.6% sodium silicate to approximately 1150° F. for approximately 2 hours. Accordingly, the Li/Mn/Fe agglomerate may be considered a “double fired” agglomerate, while the Li/Si/Fe agglomerate may be considered a “single fired” agglomerate.
Lithium sources of the granular core 54 indicated in Table 1 include the Li/Si/Fe agglomerate and the Li/Mn/Fe agglomerate; however, in other embodiments, lithium fluoride or lithium oxide may also be present in the granular core 54 in a non-agglomerated form. In certain embodiments, as indicated in Table 2, the granular core 54 may include greater than 0.4%, greater than 0.8%, or between approximately 1% and approximately 2% lithium compounds (e.g., lithium oxide and lithium fluoride from the agglomerates) by weight of the tubular welding wire 50. The lithium sources may reduce the amount of nitrogen that diffuses or migrates into the weld pool, decreasing the porosity. The lithium sources may be configured to form a nitride at the surface of the weld pool, decrease the nitrogen within the weld pool, and/or decrease the nitrogen available to bond to the aluminum sources. In some embodiments, increasing the weight percent of the lithium sources relative to the total weight of the granular core 54 may enable the weight percent of the aluminum sources to decrease in the resulting weld deposit. Further, as mentioned above, a lower weight percent of aluminum may increase the ductility and toughness of the weld.
The FCAW-S system 10 provided with the self-shielding tubular welding wire embodiments E1-E9 set forth above enables an operator to readily perform an open root pass weld. That is, at least the aluminum and lithium sources within the granular core 54 reduce the porosity and embrittlement of the weld by binding with the oxygen and nitrogen. It may be appreciated that, in certain embodiments, limiting the oxygen in the weld pool may reduce the viscosity and increases the flow of the weld pool, which may enable the operator to readily manipulate the weld pool to obtain an acceptable root pass weld bead. In certain embodiments, the quantity of SiO2 (or another suitable glassy slag promoter) may produce a glassy slag (e.g., providing greater reinforcement) in the weld pool. In other words, the use of one or more glassy slag promoters (e.g., SiO2) may provide support for the weld pool during open root welding operation to reduce undesirable windowing (e.g., enlarged opening in the root region) and spearing (e.g., feeding wire through the root without a continuous arc).
The flowchart of
At block 110, the control circuitry 28 is configured to increase the current through the electrode to pinch the molten ball into the weld pool with a magnetic field. As the current through the electrode coupled to the weld pool increases, the electrode may narrow and affect the voltage through the electrode. At block 112, the control circuitry 28 predicts the onset of clearing the short circuit by detecting the change in voltage, current, or some mathematical function of both voltage and current. At block 114, the control circuitry 28 rapidly decreases the current prior to clearing the short circuit at block 116. By reducing the current prior to clearing the short circuit, the control circuitry 28 reduces the spatter caused by the arc 22 immediately following the clearance. Reducing spatter improves the surface quality of the weld groove and improves the quality of subsequent weld passes. After the short circuit clears, the control circuitry 28 may repeat the method 102 to form subsequent molten balls of the tubular welding wire 12 and a series of weld beads along the joint 72. Throughout the method 102, the control circuitry 28 is configured to control the feed rate of the tubular welding wire 12 to substantially maintain the desired stick-out for the weld.
Technical effects of the presently disclosed embodiments include a FCAW-S system 10 and a tubular welding wire 12 that readily enable open root pass welding. In certain embodiments, the self-shielding tubular welding wire 12 and FCAW-S deposition method enable open root pass welds that satisfy commercial standards (e.g., API 1104) for all positions on pipe joints. Further, in certain embodiments, the open root pass welds may be performed with or without backing to support the root opening. Moreover, as the tubular welding wire may be self-shielding, an external shielding gas supply is not needed to operate the FCAW-S system 10. This may reduce the weight, cost, complexity, or combinations thereof associated with the welding torch 14 and welding system 10. The self-shielding tubular welding wire 12 also enables a smaller welding torch 14 that may increase operator visibility while welding.
While only certain features of the present technique have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.
This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/677,143, entitled “ROOT PASS WELDING SOLUTION,” filed Jul. 30, 2012, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
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