Additional-processesfor increased valueSOLUTIONS with Effective, Powerful AdviceAdditional-processes increase the range of jobs you may accept. As a welder, why should you be interested in Additional-Processes? Because the training you get, to perform the main and accepted welding tasks, prepares you with only minor adaptations to learn and master new and different techniques, while safety knowledge and habit of precautions you have already. The more Additional processes you master, the greater your versatility and your worth. Then you can select the more rewarding jobs for your benefit. Additional processes cover a range of joining, surfacing and cutting technologies that have some relationship to welding or that were developed using modified welding equipment. This page on Additional-processes is an introduction to some specialized technologies that we present in separate pages, linked to hereafter, to provide useful information to our interested readers.
The first page we propose deals with Pipe and Tube Welding. Although no Additional processes are usually involved in this class of welding, nonetheless special requirements are applied that make this branch a specialized one, especially if Code clauses are in effect. Therefore specific process expertise and advanced skills are required, as most exacting nondestructive testing techniques are applied, and special mechanical properties (impact resistance) may need to be demonstrated. Pipelines are built to deliver fluids under pressure even to great distances, with no leaks and under most difficult climatic conditions. Therefore their workmanship must be high class, beginning with proper fit-up and tack welding and continuing with qualified welding procedures. Next of the Additional processes page is that on Micro Welding. It needs special equipment built to provide limited heat inputs, through fractional current tightly controlled, exactly located. Also required are proper skills to manipulate the torch precisely to perform welding on thin or delicate materials by depositing welded metal in very small lumps. Miniature devices, medical implants and jewelry are examples of applications performed, where needed, under a microscope for exact location. Additional-processes that do not involve melting of the base material are variously called Brazing, Braze Welding or Soldering depending on an arbitrary but accepted limits of process temperature. One should know the relative advantages of each of these Additional-processes, as explained in the above pages, to decide which one may be preferable to welding in certain cases. Severing metal may be needed to accomplish a welding job. Equipment and techniques are derived from accepted welding techniques. Therefore these operations are included in the Additional-processes in the available basic variations. Flame-, arc-, plasma- and laser-cutting are all described in our page on Cutting. The deposition of a certain metal, alloy or compound upon a different substrate may give to the treated surfaces special qualities previously not available. Additional-processes like Hardfacing and Thermal-spray are designed to provide the application of different materials. Selection of suitable metals, ceramics or composites, and their correct deposition according to requirements, provides value added and solves difficult problems of resistance and durability in demanding environments. While Adhesive Bonding may seem too remote from welding to be included in the Additional-processes, it is still a joining method that must be taken into account when all others are not applicable for some reason. As remarked above, the purpose of this presentation is to introduce some Additional-processes related to welding that are discussed in more detail in the linked pages. Their importance can be assessed by estimating the cost of implementing them relative to a complete operation. An Article on Joining incompatible Material Combinations addressing possible solutions for materials that cannot be welded together, was published in Issue No. 43 of Practical Welding Letter for March 2007 (section 4). Click on PWL#043 to read it. An Article on Progress in Magnetic Pulse Welding was published in Issue 46 of Practical Welding Letter for June 2007. An Article on Ultrasonic Consolidation was published (2) in Issue 50 of Practical Welding Letter for October 2007.
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