Materials with custom-tailored properties often demand special welding consumables and ambitious welding processing. In other words, they are well in line with Welding Alloys’ DNA. Silicon gets more and more important as an alloying element in stainless steels designed to resist strongly oxidizing acids like boiling nitric acid or concentrated hot sulphuric acid.
Uranus S1, ZeCor or Sandvik SX are all proprietary high silicon austenitic stainless steels that are increasingly used in the industry. These steels contain about 5 % silicon which improves the corrosion resistance in hot strong acid but is a challenge for good welding properties, productivity and appearance.
Welding Alloys works with engineering companies and steel manufacturers in order to provide a productive solution i.e. GMAW / FCAW to weld these steels.
A recent application has proven the quality and effectiveness of our solutions for welding high silicon austenitic stainless steel.
The application is the construction of an acid dryer tank in Sandvik SX, a particularly sensitive material to weld. Wall thickness is ranging from 8 to 25mm. The welds are exposed to hot concentrated sulphuric acid. Tube S 361-G was used for the joint welding and Tube S 362-G for the internal fillet welding in various parts like beams or reinforcement plates. The root passes were welded with WA TSS 362 GTAW wire.
Tube S 361-G and 362-G were welded in either PF or PA position with pulsed current and a shielding gas that was selected after consultation with the Greek vessel fabricator, Staalco.
Advantages of our consumables: productivity, quality and availability. There are no equivalent products available and competitor solid wires are available at a very high cost and with long lead times. When using Welding Alloys products, severe restrictions on heat input are kept under control more easily, while still maintaining high productivity and a low repair rate.
Not only do our advanced consumables offer an outstanding solution, Welding Alloys also have the technical expertise to support customers post-purchase. WA experts are available to answer any questions or provide advice about our consumables or welding processes, if required.
In this case, the customer provided us with very positive feedback about the technical support he received from Welding Alloys, which greatly facilitated the welding of more than 180m of stainless steel.