Orbital Welding

Industries and Applications for Orbital Welding

Aerospace:

 As noted earlier, the aerospace industry was the first industry to recognize the requirement for orbital welding. The high-pressure systems of a single plane can have over 1,500 welded joints, all automatically created with orbital equipment.

Boiler Tube:

 Boiler tube installation and repairs offer a perfect application for orbital welding. Compact orbital weld heads can be clamped in place between rows of heat exchanger tubing where a manual welder would experience severe difficulty making repeatable welds.

Food, Dairy and Beverage Industries:

 The food, dairy and beverage industries require consistent full penetration welds on all weld joints. Most of these tubing / piping systems have schedules for cleaning and sterilization in place. For maximum piping system efficiency the tubing must be as smooth as possible. Any pit, crevice, crack or incomplete weld joint can form a place for the fluid inside the tubing to be trapped and form a bacteria harbor.

Nuclear Piping:

 The nuclear industry with its severe operating environment and associated specifications for a high quality weld has long been an advocate of orbital welding.

Offshore Applications:

 Sub-sea hydraulic lines use materials whose properties can be altered during the thermal changes that are normal with a weld cycle. Hydraulic joints welded with orbital equipment offer superior corrosion resistance and mechanical properties.

Pharmaceutical Industry:

 Pharmaceutical process lines and piping systems deliver high quality water to their processes. This requires high quality welds to ensure a source of water from the tubes that is uncontaminated by bacteria, rust or other contaminant. Orbital welding ensures full penetration welds with no overheating occurring that could undermine the corrosion resistance of the final weld zone.

Semiconductor Industry:

 The semiconductor industry requires piping systems with extremely smooth internal surface finish in order to prevent contaminant buildup on the tubing walls or weld joints. Once large enough, a build up of particulate, moisture or contaminant could release and ruin the batch process.

Tube/Pipe Fittings, Valves and Regulators:

 Hydraulic lines and liquid and gas delivery systems all require tubing with connector fittings. Orbital systems provide a means to ensure high productivity of welding and improved weld quality. Sometimes the tubing may be welded in place to a valve or regulator body. Here the orbital weld head provides the ability to produce high quality welds in applications with restricted access to the weld joint.

A manual weld taken from an operating plant.

 This weld has defects that include lack-of- penetration, misalignment,
a huge crevice, and discoloration due to poor ID purge. This weld would be considered unacceptable by any standard