TPT July 2009

W elding: L atest D evelopments & M achinery

Heat Affected Zone welding control

linking HAZ Control with the Thermatool welder. Thermatool Corporation – USA Email : info@ttool.com Website : www.thermatool.com Inductotherm Heating & Welding Technologies Ltd – UK Email : info@ihwtech.co.uk

HAZ Control’s software allows operators to store the settings once an optimum configuration has been established. Stored settings can be reloaded easily for future production runs. The HAZ Control comes complete with a durable control cabinet, touch screen monitor, and all the necessary content for

Thermatool Corporation has announced the release of HAZ (Heat Affected Zone) Control technology for high frequency tube and pipe welding. Thermatool has developed a tool that helps operators understand the effects of frequency on the heat-affected zone of a weld. Frequency is an important factor in weld quality. Controlling the frequency allows manufacturers to control the depth of penetration of the heat during welding. For example, decreasing the frequency increases the heat penetration for induction and contact welders. HAZ Control provides software where operators enter values such as intended speeds, ODs and wall thicknesses. HAZ Control then uses a graphical interface to help the user understand how the different factors relate and provides a guide for selecting the best frequency to optimise their process. If any changes occur – for example, an increase in mill speed – the HAZ Control suggests to the operator what changes should be made, changes to power or frequency, to maintain weld quality.

 Weld control with Thermatool

New MicroTack ™ welding function

preparation and fit up is necessary. For example, for butt tacking a material thickness of 2mm, the gap must be less than 0.2mm. This function can be especially useful for thin material welding applications in the chemical, process, oil, and gas industries as well as the pharmaceutical industry and food processing equipment manufacturing. Other features of this function are minimum material deformation due to the low heat input, consistent small tacks, which cannot be detected after the seam has been welded and the ability to be used with mechanised TIG welding. MicroTack ™ welding can also speed up the tack welding of thin gauge beams, which could be up to 13m long and tacks every 30mm with the number of welds being as high as 2000. Any increases in welding speeds can have a significant impact on reducing production costs.

A feature of Kemppi’s 3-phase MasterTig MLS ™ 3000 and 3003 AC/DC welding systems is the MicroTack ™ function, available on the optional ACX control panel. This function has been specifically developed to tack weld carbon, stainless steel and titanium thin sheet components up to around 4mm thickness.  MicroTack ™ welding resembles spot welding in that it uses a high current pulse

MicroTack ™ welding resembles spot welding in that it uses a high current pulse to create a low heat input to weld thin sheet materials and thin sheet to thicker sheet materials. This method of TIG welding is made possible by the advanced control technology used in the Kemppi power source, which creates a tailored current pulse that is both highly

efficient and fast, a matter of a few dozen milliseconds giving the low heat input. The result is a clean, small tack weld, which is similar to a laser weld in appearance and characteristics, resulting in lower risks in burn through which would be found in traditional TIG welding of thin materials. Although MicroTack ™ welding is very fast and easy to use, it does not use any filler material and the heat input is low, so there is little tolerance for gaps, so precise joint

Kemppi (UK) Ltd – UK Fax : +44 8456 444 202 Email : sales.uk@kemppi.com Website : www.kemppi.co.uk

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J uly 2009

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