Electric welding device using welding material supplied in a wet

Details Electric welding device using welding material supplied in a wet Electric welding device using welding material supplied in a wet

1996-03-07

1997-12-16

Shaw, Clifford C.

Electric heating

Metal heating

Nonatmospheric environment at hot spot

219136, 2191372, B23K 900

Patent

active

056981163

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an electric welding device using welding material or filler that is supplied in a wet environment.
Electric welding under water, i.e. in a directly wet environment, has been carried out for many years with greater or lesser success. Independently of whether the electric welding is effected manually or automatically in a wet environment, weld joints of satisfactory quality have been effected to depths of about ten meters below the surface of the water. However, the quality of a weld joint is reduced very rapidly as the surrounding pressure increases, i.e. as the depth in the water in which the electric welding is to be carried out becomes greater. The increasing loss in quality of the weld joints as the surrounding pressure or depth becomes greater can be predominantly attributed to the dissociation of the water into hydrogen and oxygen due to the electric arc that is generated at the welding site. The greater the surrounding pressure at the welding site, the greater is the effect of the hydrogen and the oxygen upon the quality of the weld joint.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device with which even at very great water depth, i.e. at a high surrounding pressure, a weld joint quality that satisfies high quality standards can be achieved independent of the selected depth and hence independent of the surrounding pressure at any given time, whereby the device should also be easy to operate and easy to manufacture.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This object is realized pursuant to the invention by embodying the device in such a way that the material for welding can be supplied to the welding site in a water-free environment that extends up to the welding site.
The essential advantage of the resolution proposed by the present invention is that the welding material is kept entirely water free up to the site (electric arc) where the welding takes place. Furthermore, with the inventively proposed resolution, at a great depth, i.e. at a high surrounding pressure, an increased penetration of water, due to pressure, into a flux material that can already be present in the supplied welding material, is advantageously avoided. Such flux are normally very hygroscopic and would normally lead to a further worsening of the quality of the weld joint in a wet environment were the inventively proposed measures not carried out.
A further important advantage is that the welding process results in a considerable improvement of the welding material (an improvement with respect to strength of the welding material).
Pursuant to one advantageous specific embodiment of the device, the welding material can be supplied from a weld supply that is disposed remote from the welding site. This embodiment has the advantage that under water it is possible to operate in a manner free of obstacles since the welding material does not obstruct the work due to the removed arrangement.
It is particularly advantageous to guide the welding material to the welding site in a hose-like connection, making possible a very straightforward yet effective embodiment of the device in order to avoid contact of the welding material with the surrounding water.
In principle, it is possible to let the welding material discharge into the wet environment directly at the welding site in any desired sealed manner, for example from a welding gun, and furthermore for example by means of a mechanical seal that prevents the surrounding water from penetrating into the hose-like connection. However, since the device is designed to operate with great success substantially independent of the selected water depth, and since such mechanical seals can be produced only at great expense in order to provide a seal over the entire possible pressure range of the surrounding water, it is proposed pursuant to a further advantageous specific embodiment that in the hose-like connection an inner pressure of the internal medium that is greater than that of the outer surrounding pressure be built up so that due to

REFERENCES:
patent: 2572796 (1951-10-01), Woodard
patent: 3892937 (1975-07-01), Paton et al.
patent: 4035602 (1977-07-01), Berghof
patent: 4039798 (1977-08-01), Lythall et al.
patent: 4139758 (1979-02-01), Pinfold

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