Overview
Cold Wire Feed Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) (2006-354)
Project Team:
- Concurrent Technologies Corporation
- Newport News Shipbuilding
- Northrop Grumman Ship Systems
2005
NSRP ASE Investment: $81K
Objective:
There is great interest in the naval shipbuilding community to increase the productivity of the submerged-arc-welding (SAW) process by means of increased deposition rates, but without the mechanical property deterioration and without the use of expensive additional equipment. The typical means of increasing deposition rates is to increase the wire feed rate, which consequently increases welding current. This increase in current also increases heat input, which leads to a deterioration in mechanical properties. In order to keep the heat input low, an alternate method of increasing deposition rates, cold-wire feed SAW, was investigated. Cold wire additions have been shown to be feasible using both solid and flux-cored wires; however, the technique had not yet been applied to high-strength steels in the domestic shipbuilding industry. The goal of this project was to demonstrate that the cold-wire feed SAW process can produce welds in several representative ship steels that have the mechanical properties necessary to meet or exceed the current requirements for single-wire SAW. Testing resulted in cost savings ranging from 22-28% over the current process for HSLA-65 and HSLA -100.
Key Deliverables:
Final Report – Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited