AGGLOMERATED ELECTRIC ARC WELDING FLUX

Abstract: An agglomerated submerged arc welding flux which comprises one or more fluorides of calcium, sodium, potassium, barium, aluminum, magnesium, strontium and lithium, and oxides selected from the group of aluminum, magnesium, silicon, strontium, titanium, calcium, zirconium, manganese and potassium, characterised in that calcium oxide is present in amounts of from 11% to 25% and titanium dioxide is present in amounts of from 18% to 30% expressed as a percent of the total weight.

Description: This invention relates to electric arc welding and, more particularly, to an agglomerated granular flux for use in the submerged arc welding of low carbon steels. The invention is particularly but not exclusively applicable to the electric arc welding of the abutting and longitudinally extending edges of a heavy steel plate formed into a cylindrical pipe and will be described with particular reference thereto, although it will be appre­ ciated that the invention has broader applications and can be used wherever deep penetration and flat bead profile characteristics are required. Large diameter steel pipe is formed by bending a flat plate of low carbon steel of the desired thickness into a tube with the longitudinally extending edges abutting. A windrow of granular flux is deposited on these edges of the first side to be welded and one or more electrically energized mild steel or low alloy steel electrode(s) is advanced through the windrow to establish an arc between the end of the electrode(s) and the longitudinally extending edges. The electrode(s) is then moved along the edges. The arc melts both the edges and the end of the electrode(s) to form a molten weld puddle which solidifies as the electrode(s) moves on. At the same time, the arc melts some of the granular flux which floats on top of the molten weld puddle and solidifies after the molten steel in the weld pool puddle solidifies, thus protecting the weld puddle from the atmosphere and shaping the surface of the solidified weld bead and giving it an appropriate surface texture. The unmelted flux is then recovered and can be reused. The melted flux, now solidified as a slag, is then removed and usually reprocessed. The edges are then welded from the reverse side with the bottom of the weld overlapping or intersecting with the weld from the opposite side. The pipe is then usually stressed by hydraulic pressure on the inside sufficient to stress the metals beyond the yield point and make the pipe round. The requirements of a flux for pipe fabrication are deep penetration, so that the weld can be accomplished in two passes (one inner and one outer), a low weld bead profile so that no or a minimum of weld metal must be removed to give a smooth pipe contour and no under­ cutting at the edges. The fluxes normally used are mixtures of various known fluxing ingredients such as the fluorides of calcium, sodium, potassium, barium, magnesium, strontium and lithium, the oxides of aluminum, magnesium, silicon, strontium, titanium, calcium, zirconium, manganese, and potassium, and the like, and sometimes deoxidizers, all in carefully controlled proportions selected to give (a) a desired solidifying temperature to the molten slag; (b) desired slag removal characteristics; (c) desired welding charac­ teristics, and (d) most importantly desired mechanical properties to the deposited weld bead. The various flux ingredients, in powdered form, are thoroughly intermixed and then are either fused by heating to a temperature where all of the ingredients are melted so as to react with one another, allowed to cool and finally crushed to a desired granule size, or agglomerated by including a low temperature binder, such as sodium or potassium silicate, in the mixture and then heating the mixture to a temperature sufficient to dry the binder and bind the other ingredients in unreacted state into granules of the desired size. Fused fluxes, assuming the same ingredients, are more expensive to manufacture than agglomerated fluxes because of the greater energy requirements to melt all of the ingredients, the cost of sophisticated equipment to withstand the higher temperatures, and the additional steps of cooling the liquid mass to a solid and then crushing it to the desired granule size. Agglomerated fluxes require the use of a rela­ tively inexpensive binder. With the lower firing tempera­ tures and the fact that the ingredients are never in a liquid state, they inherently form into granules of the desired size in the manufacturing process which normally employs a rotating heated kiln. Also, agglomerated fluxes are easier for the operator to handle. They are granular and can be handled easily with no discomfort. Fused fluxes may be likened to broken glass with the granules sometimes being sliver-like or having sharp edges. Agglomerated fluxes do not melt as easily as fused fluxes so that less agglomerated flux is consumed when welding. This decreases the cost of producing a weld which is very desirable. Also, agglomerated fluxes allow greater flexibility in adding alloying metals to the formulation because at the high temperatures necessary to melt fused fluxes, such metals are consumed. Alternatively, the metals in powder form may be added to the crushed granules but problems result here because during shipment, the powdered metals tend to settle out of fused fluxes. In agglomerated fluxes, the powdered metals may be mixed with the ingredients before heating and are evenly distributed throughout the agglomerated granules. Agglomerated fluxes produce a deposition rate which can be 25% higher than similar fused fluxes at the same welding current. This results in higher productivity which is an advantage in most applications where increased deposition rates reduce the welding time required to fill a given joint volume or to produce the required weld size. In pipe manufacture, however, a high deposition rate is not desirable because it results in excess weld reinforce­ ment and a poor weld profile. For this application, it is desirable to produce a low weld profile with a minimal change in the contour of the surface of the welded pipe. Prior to the present invention, agglomerated fluxes had an additional disadvantage in pipe welding when compared to the fused fluxes, namely that for a given weld current the penetration of the weld into the base metal was less than that produced by comparable fused fluxes. High penetration is necessary to ensure that, after the inner and outer weld passes are completed, the weld extends across the entire thickness of the abutting edges to ensure that the weld seam will not be weaker than the rest of the pipe. This is particularly important because of the exceedingly high stresses imposed on the weld bead during the hydraulic forming step. However, if the welding current were increased to increase the penetration, then the deposition rate became so high as to produce a weld bead with a high profile. High penetration is also desirable because it provides sufficient overlapping of the weld beads made from each side of the pipe to ensure tie-in without requiring critical tolerances for the alignment of the welding electrodes with the butted seam. Heretofore, despite the cost and other advantages of an agglomerated flux above described, operators welding the longitudinally extended edges of a formed pipe have preferred the fused fluxes because of the high penetration and low bead profile characteristics obtainable with such fluxes. However, we have now devised a new agglomerated, electric arc welding flux by which the well known advantages of the agglomerated fluxes can be obtained together with an ability to produce a deposit similar to that of a fused flux. In accordance with the present invention, an agglomerated flux formulation for the welding of low carbon steels is provided which includes higher amounts of both calcium oxide and titanium dioxide in combination than have heretofore been used in agglomerated fluxes and, in particular, includes a combination of titanium dioxide, calcium oxide, aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide and the fluorides which, when agglomerated, results in the high penetration heretofore only available with fused fluxes while at the same time providing the deposition rate and low bead profile of such fluxes. In one preferred formulation, a mixture of the usual ingredients found in arc welding fluxes is used, such as one or more of the fluorides of calcium, lithium, aluminum, magnesium, potassium, sodium, strontium, or barium in total amounts from 0 to 15 weight percent; and one or more of the oxides of aluminum, silicon, zirconium, mag­ nesium, strontium, potassium and manganese, but containing as essential ingredients both calcium oxide in an amount of from 11% to 25% and titanium dioxide in an amount of from 18% to 30% the whole mixture being agglomerated into free flowing granules by a suitable binder such as sodium silicate or potassium silicate. Illustrative compositions of the invention are set out by way of example only in the following Table which shows the minimum and maximum amounts of the principal ingredients in weight percent of the total dry weight, and also a preferred amount. Calcium oxide is quite hygroscopic and is normally present as a stable complex compound with SiO₂ and/or Al₂O₃. The sodium oxide is present as a silicate which functions as a binder for the other ingredients. Sodium oxide can also be present as some form or mineral. Thus, the silicon dioxide is normally present as a complex compound with both the sodium and calcium oxides. It can however also be present as free quartz. Calcium fluoride is the most compatible and least expensive of the fluorides and is preferred. Fluoride compounds are used in some amounts to provide protection from the atmosphere and to lower the melting range of the slag. Too much fluoride adversely affects the arc stability and can increase the tendency for undercutting at the edges of the weld bead. The potassium oxide gives improved arc stability when using A.C. electric power. Oxides of manganese tend to cause a release of gases under the molten flux which become trapped there as the slag freezes and can cause an undesirable gas marking of the weld bead surface. Therefore, they are normally not used or are employed in only limited amounts. The flux ingredients may also include various known alloying ingredients such as manganese, silicon, and the like, which will transfer to the weld bead and alloy therewith in accordance with known principles. While no explanation can be given for the success of the invention, it is believed that the low viscosity of the mixture of the high amounts of calcium oxide and titanium dioxide in the liquid state at the temp­ eratures encountered while arc welding, is responsible for excellent wetting of the bead and the low bead profile. Also, the titanium oxide stabilizes the arc. It is to be noted that the flux formulation does not include any of the known potent metallic deoxidizers, such as zirconium, titanium, aluminum or magnesium, which metals would function to reduce the oxides in the flux formulation with the residuals transferring to the weld bead where they could adversely alloy the weld metal causing embrittlement and cracking. The present invention does not require such deoxidizers. The fluxes of the invention are especially useful in the welding of longitudinal seams or spiral seams in large and small diameter pipes. Using the compositions of the present invention, we have been able to obtain weld beads on the longitudinally extending edges of welding pipe substantially fully equal in quality, bead shape, penetration, impact strength and the like, to those heretofore produced by a fused flux, with resultant economies of a flux which is less costly to manufacture, has operator appeal and is easily handled by the welding operator.

Claims: 1. An agglomerated flux for electric arc welding, which flux comprises one or more fluorides of calcium, sodium, potassium, barium, aluminum, magnesium, strontium and lithium, and oxides selected from the group of aluminum, magnesium, silicon, strontium, titanium, calcium, zirconium, manganese and potassium, characterised in that calcium oxide is present in amounts of from 11% to 25% and titanium dioxide is present in amounts of from 18% to 30% expressed as a percent of the total weight. 2. A flux according to claim 1, which comprises the following ingredients in percentages by dry weight as shown: 3. A flux according to claim 2, which comprises of the following ingredients in the approximate percentages by dry weight as shown: Calcium Oxide 16 Titanium Dioxide 23 Aluminum Oxide 11 Silicon Dioxide 32 Sodium Oxide 3.0 Potassium Oxide 0.6 Metallic Mn + Si 1.0 One or more fluorides of Calcium, Sodium, Potassium, Barium, Magnesium, Strontium Lithium 11 4. A flux according to claim 3, which contains 11% by weight, on a dry weight basis, of calcium fluoride. 5. A method of submerged arc welding of low carbon steel wherein there is used a flux as claimed in any of claims 1 to 4.

Inventors: CROCKETT, DENNIS D., WEAVER, ROBERT J., YOUNG, RONALD Y.
Applicants: THE LINCOLN ELECTRIC COMPANY
Application year: 1987
Main classification: B23K35
IPC codes: B23K35