ESW strip cladding of pipes and hybrid laser for welding of longitudinal seam.

Author:
Lars-Erik Stridh, IWE, Global Welding Application Manager ESAB AB, Swedenm

Abstract
Electro Slag Welding with strip material, is compared to Submerged Arc Welding to prefer.
The deposition rate increases with 60 – 80%, gives less dilution with the base material and
increases the welding speed with 50 – 100%. Using a 30 mm wide strip, the minimum pipe
diameter that is weldable, is 250mm for longitudinal welding and 350 mm for circumferential
welding. The number of steel grades that are required to achieve the desired surface
properties, results in many different strip analysis. In order to facilitate this, R&D has been
done with the flux. Aim is to reduce the amount of strip qualities and add alloying elements
from the flux. This paper describes how this is possible with Ni, Cr and Mo, and shows the
corrosion properties.
A new technique to weld the longitudinal seam of “raiserpipes” is shown. The welding is
done with HybridLaser combining a CO2 laser with MAG process. The welding with
conventional technique of a 12 m long pipe, wallthickness 16 mm takes app: 2 hours 10
minutes. With the new process it can be done in 18 minutes, maintaining the quality and
mechanical properties. This opens up many possibilities for pipe welding.
1. General about surfacing
For many reasons, cladding of an un-alloyed or low-alloyed material is commonly used by
industry as a cost efficient way of achieving a corrosion resistant surface on different
applications like pipes, pressure vessels, valve parts and other types of storage containers.
Surfacing is done on many different shapes and geometries, it can be done on the outside
surface on a sphere for ball valves. It can be done inside a pipe, it can be done on the edge
of a cutting tool, it is often done on flat plates and many more applications. The cladding
can be done by many different processes, both manual, mechanized and automated. Many
small objects are cladded manually with MMA, GTAW or GMAW, if volumes are large
enough it is relatively easy to mechanise the cladding with the GTAW and GMAW process.
Next development for cladding is to use oscillating GMAW with flux cored wires in diameter
up to 2.5 mm. This process can be used for all type of applications and has the advantage
to be able to enter small diameter pipes. The same is also possible with GTAW and also
with PAW, with PAW it is possible to perform cladding in as small inner diameter as 80 mm.
When it comes to larger surfaces and the need of increased productivity we move to SAW
and ESW cladding with strip and flux. With these two methods it is possible to clad large
areas at high efficiency and with a very controlled dilution with the base material.

1.1 SAW Cladding.

The SAW strip cladding process has been in use for app 50 years. It uses a strip, normally
with a thickness of 0.5 mm and the width normally varies from 30 to 120 mm, but other
width´s are available for special applications.
In the SAW process the strip is feed down through the contact jaws at the same time as the
flux is feed down on both sides of the strip. The strip generates an arc between itself and
the basematerial, the arc is not uniform and static, it wanders along the width of the strip
but is all the time sub merged under the molten slag.

1.2 ESW Cladding.

The electro slag welding process was patented in USA in February 1940 and is a process
that can weld material thicknesses from 25 up to 300 mm . It works in the vertical or very
close to vertical position, it is in use for hull welding of ships, it is used for welding heavy
wall thickness vessels of different kinds and many more applications. In the early 70:ies the
electroslag concept was adjusted to fit the cladding process with a metal strip. I can be said
to be a development of SAW strip cladding which has quickly established itself as a reliable
high deposition process.

ESW strip cladding relates to the resistance welding processes and is based on the ohmic
resistance heating of a molten, electrically conductive slag. There is no arc between the
strip electrode and the base material, except in the starting moment where the arc ignites
between the strip and the base material, melts the slag and when the slag amount is
enough the resistance welding process starts. The heat generated by the molten slag melts
the surface of the base material and the edge of the strip electrode is submerged in the
slag and flux. The great advantage of ESW cladding is high deposition rate, low dilution
and cost effectiveness. The ESW cladding process with strip has been shown to generate a
substantially greater deposition rate with much less dilution compared to SAW cladding.
Because of the high CaF content in the flux, the layer deposited by ESW contains about
one third of the oxygen content compared to SAW cladding.
1.3 Differences.
The main differences between SAW and ESW cladding lies in the way the melting of the
strip is achieved, in SAW the arc is melting the strip but in ESW it is the resistance heat
from the molten slag that melts the strip. In the process equipment there are also
differences as it comes to the design and build up of the welding head. In SAW the flux is
feed to the process from both sides of the strip and the process is totally hidden under the
flux. In ESW the flux comes from only one side, this results in that the molten slag pool is
unprotected and the heat radiation is strong, hence the need to have water cooling of the
contact jaws of the welding head.

Note the intense heat radiation, but since the arc is hidden there is no UV radiation.
The deposition rate for ESW is 60 – 70% higher than SAW.
The dilution is less for ESW, 7 – 12%.
The arc voltage for ESW cladding is lower than SAW (24 – 26V)
Possible to weld with up to 2300Amp with ESW.
Welding speed is increased with up to 200% for ESW
The heat input is approximately the same.
Flux consumption is less with ESW, 0.6 kg/kg strip instead of 0.8 kg/kg strip for SAW.
The solidification rate of the ESW weld metal is lower, improving the degasification and the
resistance to porosity. Oxides can rise easier out of the molten pool to the surface; the
overlay metal is cleaner from a metallurgical point of view and thus less sensitive to hot
cracking and corrosion.
1.4 Productivity.
The electro slag strip cladding method was developed in the early seventies to increase
productivity mainly by increasing the deposition rate and decreasing the dilution compared
with SAW process.
Due to the properties of ESW often only one layer is needed to fulfil the cladding
requirements and further the consumption of consumables is significantly reduced.
ESW can be advantageously use for productive cladding of second layer if two layer
technology is demanded. As first layer is commonly using SAW process or ESW process.
The unique ESAB OK Flux 10.14 is a high basicity flux used with the electro slag process,
designed for single-layer or multi-layer cladding in combination with austenitic type strips
Cr, Cr-Ni, Cr-Ni-Mo at very high deposition rates (up to 45 cm/min with 60 x 0,5 mm strip)
using high power intensity. With the 60 x 0,5 mm strip, the most common size, welding
currents up to 2300 A can be used. The difference in deposition rate between the methods
is illustrated in the diagram below.

2. Alloying through the flux.

Many different cladding materials are present on the market, unalloyed material just for
building up lost material, hard facing material, 410 series, all the stainless grades, Ni-
alloys and Cobalt alloys. Not all the strip materials are easy to produce and there is also a
cost aspect involved, as the value for the strip material is high, so if the number of strip
alloys could be reduced and different deposited analysis could be achieved through the
flux, it would be an advantage. In a project between KIMAB, ESAB and AB Sandvik
Materials Technology the effect on alloying elements added in the flux has been evaluated
[1]. Using the ESW process and three different strips, 317L, 309LMo and 316L, three strip
welds were manufactured and then investigated for chemical analysis, microstructure and
corrosion properties. Interesting here is to compare the welding with the OK Band 317L
together with OK flux 10.10 and OK Band 316L together with the experimental alloying flux.
The OK Flux 10.10 is a standard fluoride basic flux for electro slag strip cladding with
austenitic strips. The experimental flux is called 275/6 and has the same base as 10.10 but
with additions of Ni, Cr and Mo.

Strip analysis:

OK Band C Si Cr Ni Mo
316L 0.017 0.64 17.2 12.8 2.6
317L 0.017 0.38 18.9 13.5 3.4
After the test pieces were taken out of the weld samples, they were analysed at three
different laboratories in order to get as good accuracy as possible and the results looks as
follows:
OK Band C Si Cr Ni Mo
316L 0.023 0.23 17.89 12.91 3.36
317L 0.023 0.53 16.99 12.49 3.16
The results shows two interesting trends, the first is that the effect from the added alloying
elements in the experimental flux is validated in the analyse of the welded layer. The
second thing is the fact that the Si-level is reduced in the welded layer with the
experimental flux, the reason for this is most likely that the addition of Cr in the flux is
changing the oxidation potential so that more Si is reacting and ends up as slag.

2.1 Oxygen content.

Other research reports have shown that there is a relation between the oxygen content in
the welded layer and the oxygen potential of the slag [2]. Comparing a flux designed for
SAW cladding to a flux designed for ESW cladding there is a fundamental difference in the
oxygen content of the deposited layer. An alloy 625 strip cladded layer done with SAW
shows app 700 ppm oxygen and the same alloy done with ESW shows app 280 ppm
oxygen.

3. Cladding inside a pipe.

Generally there is no problem to clad a pipe on the inside, it is commonly done with all the
main welding processes. The most productive methods are SAW and ESW strip cladding
and these processes are also used to a large extent. The limits that are imposed upon the
process are the thickness of the pipe, the width of the strip and the inner diameter of the
pipe. Also the length of the pipe is limiting, there must be a correlation of the free hanging
boom dimensions and the inner diameter.

Detail from an ESW strip cladding head. Note that the strip has to be feed longitudinally
along the beam and then must be twisted in order to be welded to the rotating pipe.
3.1 Diameter and thickness limits.

The values in the table above shows the limitations for the SAW process.
The values in the table above shows the limitations for the ESW process.

4. Longitudinal joining of pipe.

There are different production philosophy’s for how to perform the longitudinal seam of a
pipe. But for a pipe that is cladded on the inside, special precautions must be taken. We
have looked at a “raiser pipe” used in the offshore industry and the base material in the
pipe is X70 and the pipe is cladded with a 309 grade on the inside, in this case we do only
look at the longitudinal joining, not the final bead on the inside that deposits the 309
material.

4.1 Present joining procedure.

The wall thickness of the pipe is 18 mm, plus the 3 mm thickness of the cladded layer. Pipe
length is 12 meters. Steps are like follows:

• Joint preparation.
• Forming of pipe.
• Tack welding (GTAW)
• Root welding (PAW)
• Hot pass (GMAW)
• Fill & cap (SAW)

The time it takes to do the complete welding of 1 pipe is app: 2 hours and 10 minutes.

The preparation of the joint as today.

4.2 New procedure.
It was decided to test with HybridLaser in order to get minimum joint volume. Many different
joint preparations were tested before the final was determined. The final procedure is a
combination of a CO2 laser and a GMAW process. The laser effect was 12 kW and the
GMAW uses a 1.0 mm ER-70S-6 wire welded on 225 Amp, 28.5 Volt, stick-out of 15 mm,
torch angle 20 deg forehand and a synergic pulse program was used. The shielding gas
used was 70% He, 25% Ar and 5% CO2. The flow of gas was 20 l/min and all gas was
introduced through the welding torch. The interdistance between the arc and the focus spot
was 3 mm and the welding performed with leading laser.
All this is now done in the following steps.
 • Joint preparation.
• Forming of pipe.
• Tack welding (GTAW)
• Final welding (HLAW)

The time it takes to do the complete welding of 1 pipe is now app: 18 mins.

This is the new joint preparation.

4.3 Results.
The welding during the trials was characterised by a very stable process with very little
disturbance. The part of the joint that was actually prepared into a V-joint had an joint angle
opening of 8 deg, in total and this is important, as this acts as an “light trap” that reflects
the laser into the bottom part of the joint.

The cross section.

Hardness measurements has been done 2 mm below the top surface and the highest
single value reached was 290 HV10. At the time for the writing of this paper we are still
waiting the full mechanical test results.

5. Conclusion.
Strips for cladding purposes are widely used and the predominantly process has earlier
been the SAW but over the last 10 years the ESW process has gained a lot of market
share. The development work has clearly shown that it is possible to alloy through additions
to the flux and this opens up a rationalisation in the amount of qualities of strips. The
process has it´s limitations when it comes to diameters and wall thicknesses of pipe but
there is still room for improvement of welding head design to fit into even smaller inner
diameters.
The often time consuming welding process of the logitudinal joint is about to be
considerably reduced by introduction of new welding processes like the HybridLaser
process. It now remains to validate the process and to get approvals for different
applications, there is no doubt that the process can deliver very high quality and repetabilty.
In this specific case there lies an enormous potential in reduced welding time and reduction
of welding costs. The time to finalise a 12 m long pipe is reduced with a factor 7,2! Doing a
full cost calculation including the investment costs, depriciation and comparing the
conventional way of welding the longitidunal joint with HLAW process. The cost to weld
1000 pipes is reduces with a factor 6,6! At the same time the quality is enhanced.
6 References.
[1] J.H. Devletian, Y.P. Gao, Q.H. Zhao, W.E Wood. “Strip Cladding of main propeller
shafting with Ni alloy 625 by ESW surfacing” ADP023046.
[2] S. Wessman, R. Pettersson, S. Rigdal, L. Karlsson, P. Stenvall. “Properties of stainless
steel strip welds alloyed via strip or flux” KIMAB 2007-534.
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