ROBOTIC WELDING APPLICATIONS IN PRESSURE VESSEL MANUFACTURING

Karthik Iyer

Abhishek Singh

Abstract

The use of industrial robots for welding has hitherto been confined to automobile sector, which predominantly use the Resistance Spot Welding & Gas Metal Arc Welding processes. Primary reasons for the same can be attributed to the mass production and repetitive nature of work involved in the manufacture of components & assembly parts. Pressure vessel manufacturing is a distinctive area where welding and testing requirements change from one job to other requiring customized solutions and associated process developments in each case. This paper discusses some of the advanced Robotic Welding deployed/ developed for Pressure Vessel manufacturing in Heavy Engineering such as: •Stainless Steel Internal bore weld overlay on Tube sheet cutouts by Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) process •Stainless Steel Clad restoration of dished end longitudinal seams by FCAW process •Stainless Steel liner weld buttering of dished end longitudinal seams by FCAW for critical Urea application

Keywords- Robotic Welding, Pressure Vessel, Weld Overlay, FCAW