Patent GB-1289833-A (GB)
IPC: B23K9/038
Filed: 1969-02-11
Abstract: 1289833 Welding by fusion WELDING INSTITUTE 6 Feb 1970 [11 Feb 1969] 7333/69 Heading B3R In electrogas butt welding, particularly of thick section, high thermal conductivity, workpieces shielding gas is fed downwardly through a vertical duct adjacent at least one of the fusion faces and is discharged through at least one aperture at the lower end of the duct along a line extending substantially the whole width of said face. The guide ducts may be raised as the welding progresses, necessitating water cooling thereof, or, preferably and as shown, may be left in place and consumed. As shown, the workpieces are aluminium bus-bars 10, 11. Melt retaining shoes comprise series of shoe portions 21 hinged at 22 and successively brought into position as the weld pool rises. Two aluminium consumable electrode wires 14, 15 are drawn from reels 16, 17 and fed down through wire guide tubes 12, 13 by motordriven feed rollers 18, 19. The guide tubes are oscillated across the fusion faces, a wire feed platform being traversed along a beam 28. The latter is progressively hoisted by rack-andpinion. The guide tubes may be water-cooled. Shielding gas is fed through the guide tubes to prevent air entry with the wire. Under each workpiece is placed aluminium spacers 36 arranged above a tray 37 of lower thermal conductivity, e.g. steel, containing an aluminium starter plate 38. The latter is fused on arc-striking to quickly set up a big molten pool, and the spacers 36 act to delay conduction of heat away from said pool through the workpieces. The gas guide ducts comprise boxes 23, 24 connected at their upper ends to gas supply tubes 25, 26, and having locating and gasleakage-reducing flanges 27 running along the sides of the workpieces. Each box is of aluminium, and is divided into vertical channels by a castellated baffle (42) which extends slightly higher than the workpiece top. Above the baffle-there may-be provided metal mesh, wire wool or a perforated tube to spread the gas (e.g. argon), entering through the tube 25, across the whole width of the box. The box may alternatively comprise a bunch of vertical tubes or may be of honeycomb construction. During welding, the boxes tend to burn back in arched form, a desirable condition causing the gas to be directed into the corners of the weld pool. In the event of this condition not arising naturally, the boxes may have thicker walls at the outer regions. The tips of the electrode wires are directed towards the fusion faces by inclining the interior exit surface of the guide tube tips and/or giving the wire initial plastic deformation, or by using inclined guide tubes. Two or more spaced electrodes may be used for each fusion face. In welding copper to steel, only the copper face need be shielded, e.g. by nitrogen, and a single arc directed to the copper face is sufficient; a second electrode being arranged vertically should it be required. When welding together thin and thick sections it may not be advisable to deflect an arc on to the thin section. The melt-retaining shoes may, alternatively, be one-piece and progressively hoisted, and preferably constitute a vertically differential heat sink. In Fig. 6, a single piece shoe comprises a carbon upper section 50 for contact with the melt, a solid copper intermediate section 52, and a water-cooled copper lower section 54, and is backed by a water-cooled copper plate 56.