One of the problems faced in the oil field is H2S or sour gas which quickly corrodes unprotected steel and causes catastrophic failures. Welded overlays of ER NiCrMo-3, known as Inconel 625 are the preferred solution. And hot wire GTA welding is the preferred welding process to produce low dilution, high quality welded inlays.

Hotwire tig welding in bores as small as 2 inches in diameter at depths of 72 inches or more is tough. Add to this the challenge of welding up to the edges of intersecting flow bores on preheated parts, and you have a weld no human can make.

30 years ago our first ARC5 hotwire tig welding systems rotated the part and welded with a stationary torch which simply stepped up each revolution. What made the ARC5 work was my automated programming system. The operator simply taught 4 points in the part. 1. the bottom weld, 2. the last uninterrupted weld before an intersecting bore, 3. the first uninterrupted weld above the bore and 4. the final weld. My software then generated hundreds of automatic stops and starts around the intersecting bores. My approach compensated for dimensional inaccuracies, part positioning and even expansion due to preheat .

The ARC5 was a hit. We installed hundreds of machines all over the world. And most are still running today! So to compete with our own machines we had to find a better way.

Robots are great for MIG welds but they are limited with TIG welding. Plus the wrist, the last axis, can only rotate a couple of revolutions at most. Bore cladding involves hundreds revolutions.

John Martin‘s latest innovation the ARC5 Infinity leverages the flexibility of a 6 axis robot by combining it with our infinite rotation 7th axis. This is huge! Now you can weld stationary parts and non cylindrical bores. Plus you can weld bores in any position from horizontal to vertical.

We have a ARC5 Infinity running in the ARC laboratory which incorporates a KUKA robot and a Miller Electric Mfg. LLC GTA welding power supply. If you think your parts might benefit from the next generation of robotic hot wire GTA bore cladders you are invited to visit and have Zachary Freeman test weld your parts.

ARC Specialties thrives on problems, send us yours!