Weld Purge your Pipes at a low cost with Weld Purge Film®
This article has been supplied.
When tubes and pipes of certain materials, such as stainless steel, titanium, nickel alloys and zirconium are welded together, it is desirable to purge the oxygen out of the inside of the weld zone to prevent it from reacting with the hot metal and causing oxidation, porosity and corrosion.
Some weld purging products available include Inflatable Systems (balloons), tandem units made of rubber discs and even double ended systems made of wood, foam and other unsuitable materials. Such dual ended systems require an open end to retrieve the system after the weld is finished and therefore, are not suitable for closing welds.
To overcome this limitation, Huntingdon Fusion Techniques HFT® has developed and manufactured Argweld® Weld Purge Film® kits, with water-soluble materials that can be used for open assemblies and closing welds. The Film produces an impenetrable purge barrier, which can easily be washed away when hydrostatically testing the pipe or just by normal wash out with water.
To obtain a quality purge is not easy and it has been customary to fill pipes with expensive argon gas and keep the gas running at what is thought to be a suitable flow rate for an estimated period of time. In today’s climate of ever improving quality control and increasing demands on procedures with traceability, it is inappropriate to use such hit and miss methods to guarantee a satisfactory purge.
It is not desirable to simply ‘pour’ gas into a pipe assembly in the hope that a good purge and ultimately, a good weld will be achieved. This technique rarely works very well.
Luke Keane, Distributor Support for HFT® said: “It is so easy to cut a circle of water soluble film and paste it a short distance inside each pipe end, before welding those ends together. The film dams are fixed in place using the Argweld® super water-soluble adhesive to ensure a leak tight barrier, keeping the purging volume to the barest minimum.
Weld Purge Film® will save operators large costs by minimising gas usage by cutting down dramatically on time taken to make a purge. Weld Purge Film® has been designed and developed by HFT® as a complete kit, containing all products and accessories needed.”
After welding, the water-soluble film is simply washed away during the standard hydrotest cycle or by simply washing of the pipe interior and dissolved down to molecular level, leaving no trace.
Huntingdon Fusion Techniques HFT® have a worldwide Exclusive Distributor network, which can be found at www.huntingdonfusion.com.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation