TPT May 2007

Technology Update

plant, the company has four teams in the field: three in the food industry and one in pharmaceutical. The changing needs for experienced programmers has resulted in a creative solution: the company has found that many experienced welders do not want to adapt to Idroinox’s mode of operation, so it has turned to young people, often with no welding experience, and trains them according to its needs, first in manual, then in automatic welding. In-house training results in three types of welder. Group 1 is for

› Closed welding ‘K-Series’ head, adapted to titanium applications in the aerospace industry

Switzerland, USA, Africa, Japan, Syria, and Venezuela. Each country has its own method of certifying weld procedure and quality, and there are many additional details to track when carrying out field installations in other countries. There are other complications, such as in the food and beverage industry, where some beverages can be quite caustic. The repeatability and smoothness of the weld on the interior of the tubes are the primary reasons for using orbital welding. The end- user must be convinced that no unevenness exists that might cause corrosion to begin and eventually rust through. The training of Idroinox welders presents another issue, concerning Italy’s labour laws. In addition to a full workload at the

› Smooth interior weld seam quality

When welders have proven their ability, Idroinox sponsors them for certification with the Italian Institute of Welding under ASME 9. Approximately 12 of Idroinox’s 20 welders are certified to establish new weld procedures for the automated, orbital welding systems. The orbital welding machine is essential, but the production procedures (eg how the parts are prepared for the weld, and how the machine is used) are even more important. Cutting the tubes, cleaning them, the methods and procedures used in the setup, are all critical: automated orbital welding is therefore a complete manufacturing process.

welders only qualified for manual welding. Group 2 is for welders qualified for automatic welding, but not for modifying the combination of the various automatic welding parameters. Group 3 is for welders qualified to establish new programs and procedures for the orbital welding systems. All of the welders are expected to recognise good and bad welds. The company has 7-8 welders who work primarily on manual welding activities, but can operate orbital welding systems, and are able to recognise good welds, but make no changes to the pre-established welding parameters. Making an automatic weld with proven qualified parameters is extremely easy. Welding operators from Group 2 perform automatic orbital welding, and are allowed to change only those parameters considered non-essential – ones that can be modified without requiring the qualification of a new welding procedure – allowing them to compensate for variations in the work-piece preparation. Visual checks are made, and a sample is sent to be X-rayed. This procedure ensures that the chosen and qualified parameters stay within defined limits, in order to avoid any kind of quality risks.

fi The portable orbital power source used by Idroinox

Article supplied by Mr Dick Herzfeld, with input from Mr Stefano Vitale, operations manager, Idroinox Impianti

Polysoude SAS – France Fax : +33 240 681 188 Email : info@polysoude.com Website : www.polysoude.com Idroinox Impianti Srl – Italy Fax : +39 0521 604 010 Email : sales@idroinox.it Website : www.idroinox.it

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M ay /J une 2007